Lyme Disease: Differentiating Between Detection and Diagnosis
by Blanche Grube, DMD, and Leslie Douglas, PhD
Scientific and Clinical Laboratory Testing in General
Sensitivity and specificity are common terms for assessing in quantitative terms the accuracy of a given testing method. In other words, they measure whether and how well that method is able to distinguish between disease and its absence. They are, thus, the two elements that measure the validity (i.e.,accuracy) of a given test. Let’s look closely at them in order to see how they are related and, more importantly, how they are distinct.