Glossary

Selected words and phrases

specificity – when referring to the accuracy of a test result, specificity refers to the proportion of people who do not have an illness or disease who have a negative test result.

If a test has low specificity, the concern is over false-positive results – where people who to not have a condition are wrongly diagnosed as having it.

If a test has high specificity, then people who to not have a condition are correctly ruled out from the condition.

For a serious condition, high specificity is essential to prevent people being unnecessarily treated.

Online calculator.

See sensitivity.

uneven distribution – a term in statistics where most results fall to the left (positive skewness) or right (negative skewness) of the middle of the range.

IV (intravenous) – injecting into a vein. See SC (sub-cutaneous) and IM (intra-muscular).

biopsy – taking a small sample of body tissue for examination and testing in the laboratory.

antibiotic – drug used to treat bacterial infections. Sometimes they work against other kinds of infection.