Annals online access announcement

• Book ID: 104310417
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 51 KB
• Volume: 46
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1097-6760
• DOI: 10.1016/s0196-0644(05)00797-3

✦ Synopsis

Inclusion/incorporation bias. A criterion (previously referred to as a ''gold'') standard test must be performed in any high-quality study evaluating the performance of diagnostic tests or maneuvers. Inclusion bias occurs when the criterion standard test is interpreted with knowledge of the results of the diagnostic test(s) being studied. The criterion standard test and the test or maneuver being studied should be evaluated independently by individuals blinded to the results of the other. Because of the low incidence of the disease in all of the aortic dissection studies reviewed in the abstract above, data were collected only when the diagnosis had already been confirmed. Therefore, each diagnosis was made by radiologists, surgeons, or pathologists aware of the positive physical findings or historical features that led to the criterion standard test being ordered. The knowledge of this information may theoretically have affected the interpretation of the test as positive or negative for the disease. When the final diagnosis incorporates the result of the diagnostic test being studied as a contributing determinant of whether or not the disease was present, this is referred to as incorporation bias.