PMID- 12849902
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20040317
LR  - 20190706
IS  - 0009-8981 (Print)
IS  - 0009-8981 (Linking)
VI  - 333
IP  - 2
DP  - 2003 Jul 15
TI  - Application of a diagnostic algorithm in autoantibody testing: assessment of 
      clinical effectiveness and economic efficiency.
PG  - 181-3
AB  - BACKGROUND: Guidelines aim to assist physicians about appropriate health care for 
      specific clinical circumstances. Therefore, they must be continuously updated, 
      integrated and tailored to local situations. METHODS: We applied recently 
      developed guidelines for autoantibody testing by assessing their economic 
      (efficiency) and clinical (effectiveness) impact. Since June 2002, a test order 
      algorithm has been adopted for autoantibody testing requests (3258). In 
      particular, the guidelines were modified taking into account the needs of 
      different departments and the results were compared to those (2762) of the 
      previous period (January-May 2002) that had not been integrated with any 
      diagnostic algorithm. RESULTS: A significant reduction in the number of 
      anti-double stranded DNA (anti-dsDNA) (21.4%) and anti-Extractable Nuclear 
      Antigens (anti-ENA) (19%) was found (p<0.0001), while the number of anti-nuclear 
      antibody (ANA) test was unchanged (p=n.s.); further reduction in clinically 
      inappropriate test request rates (23%) was observed. CONCLUSIONS: The application 
      of guidelines allowed the improvement of diagnostic tests' efficiency and 
      clinical effectiveness (patient's outcomes), thus confirming the need to apply 
      eventual modifications to the diagnostic process taking into consideration 
      different clinical needs.
FAU - Tampoia, M
AU  - Tampoia M
AD  - Laboratorio di Patologia Clinica I, Azienda Ospedaliera Policlinico, 70124 Bari, 
      Italy. mtampoia@libero.it
FAU - Fontana, A
AU  - Fontana A
FAU - Di Serio, F
AU  - Di Serio F
FAU - Maggiolini, P
AU  - Maggiolini P
FAU - Pansini, N
AU  - Pansini N
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PL  - Netherlands
TA  - Clin Chim Acta
JT  - Clinica chimica acta; international journal of clinical chemistry
JID - 1302422
RN  - 0 (Autoantibodies)
SB  - IM
MH  - *Algorithms
MH  - Autoantibodies/*analysis
MH  - Clinical Laboratory Techniques/*economics/standards
MH  - Diagnostic Techniques and Procedures/*economics/standards
MH  - Humans
EDAT- 2003/07/10 05:00
MHDA- 2004/03/18 05:00
CRDT- 2003/07/10 05:00
PHST- 2003/07/10 05:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2004/03/18 05:00 [medline]
PHST- 2003/07/10 05:00 [entrez]
AID - S0009898103001839 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/s0009-8981(03)00183-9 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Clin Chim Acta. 2003 Jul 15;333(2):181-3. doi: 10.1016/s0009-8981(03)00183-9.