Nurses are discussing a new blood test that establish a differential diagnosis between shortness of breath with a cardiac etiology and shortness of breath with a respiratory/pulmonary etiology. a positive result is known to indicate a cardiac etiology. the marketers of the test report that 99.8% of clients who have confirmed cardiac etiologies test positive in the test. however, 1.3% of clients who do not have cardiac etiologies for their shortness of breath also test positive. which statement best characterizes this blood test?

The best answer to the question: Which statement best characterizes this blood test, would be: It is a test with high sensitivity, but low specificity.

Explanation:

In clinical trials, especially when testing tools that can be used for diagnostic purposes, it is highly important to see how these tests will perform when actually diagnosing a condition, and delivering the necessary parameters to ensure that what is being tested does point to one health condition, or to several. In this case we have a blood test that is supposed to help in the diagnosis of patients with either cardiac, or pulmonary, conditions, based on a symptom they present, which is shortness of breath. What is expected of this test is for it to help determine if that symptom, common to several underlying conditions, is actually connected to a heart, or a respiratory, condition. Although the general results are good, in that the test does point towards patients with cardiac conditions, it also tests positive for patients who do not present a cardiac condition. In research, this means that the test used is highly sensitive, but not specific enough that it will allow to rule out all other possible underlying causes for the shortness of breath, leaving only heart conditions.