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Ralph S. Ryback, MD; Michael J. Eckardt, PhD; Robert R. Rawlings, MS; Laura S. Rosenthal

JAMA. 1982;248(18):2342-2345.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

PHYSICIANS order more laboratory tests today than ever before. Because of the increasing likelihood of clinically spurious values with the increasing number of tests, the difficulty of detecting many medical conditions in early stages, and the difficulty in differentiating among certain medical conditions, interpretive reporting of laboratory results can be of diagnostic value.

See also p 2261.

A number of sophisticated mathematical approaches have been applied to the analysis of clinical laboratory data.^1-3 One of the more commonly used approaches is discriminant analysis (DA),^4,5 which is a complex mathematical form of pattern recognition, wherein it is determined whether two or more defined medical conditions can be differentiated on the basis of variables other than those used to define the medical conditions. Quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA) is a nonlinear form of DA that does not assume that the variability present in the discriminating variables (eg, clinical laboratory tests) is . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Laboratory of Clinical Studies (Dr Ryback), Laboratory of Preclinical Studies (Dr Eckardt), and the Division of Intramural Clinical and Biological Research (Ms Rosenthal), National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; and the Statistical and Mathematical Applications Branch, Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration (Mr Rawlings), Rockville, Md.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to the Laboratory of Clinical Studies, Division of Intramural Clinical and Biological Research, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 12501 Washington Ave, Rockville, MD 20852 (Dr Ryback).

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