Home > Term: specificity
specificity
The probability that a medical test will correctly produce a negative test result for a person who does not have the condition being tested. In other words, a specific test is one that produces true negative results. For example, the specificity of the Western Blot is very high; the test seldom mistakes antibodies to other diseases as antibodies to HIV. For that reason, the Western Blot is used to confirm a positive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) or other HIV antibody test.
- Part of Speech: noun
- Industry/Domain: Health care
- Category: AIDS prevention & treatment
- Company: National Library of Medicine
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Creator
- Joseph Floyd
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