screening test – SkepDoc

A Test For Earlier Diagnosis Of Autism? Not Convincing

Apr 6, 2020Harriet A. Hall, MDDiagnostic tests & procedures, Ophthalmology, SkepDoc's Corner column (CSI)autism, biomarker, early diagnosis, electroretinogram, predictive value, screening test, senstivity, specificity

Autism is diagnosed on clinical grounds by observing the child’s behavior. There is no blood test or any other objective test to diagnose it. But that hasn’t stopped people from claiming to have found one. Among other candidates, a saliva test has been proposed, and now an eye scan. In summer 2019, a press release from Flinders University reported

The Screening Test that Caused an Epidemic

There is a worldwide epidemic of thyroid cancer. South Korea has been hit the hardest; in 2011, the rate of thyroid cancer diagnoses was fifteen times what it was in 1993. There have also been dramatic increases in other countries including the United States, France, Italy, the UK, and Japan, and lesser increases in Scandinavia