Akshay Nair explores the results of a systematic review of cognitive tests for dementia and mild cognitive impairment, which focuses on the MMSE, Mini-Cog, ACE-R and MoCA instruments. Along the way he explains how diagnostic tests work and how sensitivity and specificity are useful measures to get your head around.
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This diagnostic review compared two computer aided adjunctive tests for oral cancer. Oral CDX and DNA-image cytometry. The results suggest that DNA-image cytometry has a highly significant potential over OralCDx brush biopsy as an accurate and simple diagnostic tool for clinically suspected oral precancer and oral cancer.
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Olivia Kirtley and Alys Cole-King consider the implications of a new BMJ review on suicide risk assessment and intervention in people with mental illness.
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Ten studies involving a total of 394 patients were included in this review of desensitising agents during tooth bleaching. While the results suggest a reduction in sensitivity variation in the concentration of the agents used, the quality of the included studies means the results should be interpreted with caution.
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This review included 12 small in vitro and in vivo studies of Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) for the diagnosis of a root fracture. While the data suggest the ability to detect root fractures in non-endodontically treated teeth, the findings should be interpreted with caution.
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This review included 9 studies assessing the predictive value of panoramic radiography on inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) injury after third molar extraction. Results suggest that darkening of the root had a high specificity in predicting IAN injury.
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This review of 117 studies, which were mainly in vitro studies (93), found radiographic caries detection to be highly accurate for cavitated proximal lesions and also suitable to detect dentine caries lesions.
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This review included 102 studies the majority (77%) being laboratory-based findings that visual inspection had good caries detection accuracy in primary and permanent teeth, with a trend for higher specificity than sensitivity.
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This diagnostic test review included 11 studies the majority from 2 research groups. The findings suggest that ultrasonography could be useful for diagnosing anterior disk displacement in patients with temporomandibular disorders.
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Raphael Underwood summarises a recently updated Cochrane systematic review, which aimed to systematically evaluate the accuracy of first rank symptoms for diagnosing schizophrenia.
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