Applying Epidemiology to Diagnostic Findings

Abstract

A clinical diagnosis can be considered a probability statement. How good that statement is depends on a number of factors related to the examiner, the examined and the examination (Sackett et al, 1985). In addition to this, the ability to extrapolate ones findings from a few examined animals to the population eg. herd, will depend on how representative the examined animals are of the population and /or the number of animals sampled. In this paper, primary emphasis will be given to the examination, particularly to the use of tests, for detecting subclinical disease and to the extrapolation of results to the population.