Value of Predictive Values
- 26 June 1980
- journal article
- Published by Massachusetts Medical Society in New England Journal of Medicine
- Vol. 302 (26) , 1479-1480
- https://doi.org/10.1056/nejm198006263022615
Abstract
To the Editor: The study by Bravo et al. in the September 27 issue suggested that plasma catecholamines are more useful in the diagnosis of pheochromocytoma than urinary vanillyl-mandelic acid (VMA) and metanephrines. Fortunately, many raw data were included in the body of the paper. I offer an alternative and opposite appraisal of that work. In the study of Bravo and his colleagues, plasma catecholamines were elevated in 22 of 23 pheochromocytomas (95.7 per cent sensitivity). Plasma catecholamines were normal in 28 of 40 normal subjects (70 per cent specificity). If one were to screen all hypertensive patients for pheochromocytomas, . . .Keywords
This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- The biochemical techniques for detecting and establishing the presence of a pheochromocytoma: A review of ten years' experienceThe American Journal of Cardiology, 1970