Journal
BIOMARKERS IN MEDICINE
Volume 6, Issue 4, Pages 391-400Publisher
FUTURE MEDICINE LTD
DOI: 10.2217/BMM.12.49
Keywords
accuracy; biomarker; cerebrospinal fluid; dichotomizationitivity; specificity
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
New proposed criteria for the clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease increasingly incorporate biomarkers, most of which are normally measured on a continuous scale. Operationalizing such criteria thus requires continuous biomarkers to be dichotomized, which in turns requires the selection of a cut-point at which to dichotomize. In this article, we review the statistical principles underlying the choice of cut-points, describe some of the most commonly adopted statistical approaches used to estimate cut-points, highlight potential pitfalls in some of the approaches and characterize in what sense the estimated cut-point from each approach is optimal. We also emphasize that how a cut-point is selected must be made in reference to how the resulting dichotomized biomarker is to be used, and in particular what actions will follow from a positive or negative test result.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available