A Test with high sensitivity & low specificity will have
So if a test has high sensitivity, it's likely to have few false negatives. That's the "SNOUT" mnemonic—Sensitive tests when Negative rule OUT disease. But low specificity would mean more false positives. So in such a scenario, the test would miss fewer real cases but incorrectly label healthy people as positive.
Now, the options are about what the test will have. The possible outcomes here would be more false positives and fewer false negatives. So the correct answer would be something like "More false positives and fewer false negatives." Let me check the options again. The user didn't provide them, but based on the question's structure, the answer is likely related to the trade-off between sensitivity and specificity.
Another angle: a test with high sensitivity and low specificity would have high true positives but low true negatives. So, the number of false positives would be high because specificity is low. Therefore, the test might have a high number of false positives and low false negatives.
I should also recall that in a high sensitivity test, a negative result is reliable (if negative, you can rule out the disease), but a positive result isn't reliable because of the low specificity. So the test isn't good at confirming the disease but is good at ruling it out.
Putting this together, the correct answer should indicate that the test has a high number of false positives and a low number of false negatives. That's the key point here. The other options might confuse the relationship between sensitivity and specificity, like thinking high sensitivity leads to more true positives but not considering the impact on false positives.
**Core Concept**
This question tests understanding of **test performance metrics**: *sensitivity* (ability to detect true positives) and *specificity* (ability to detect true negatives). High sensitivity minimizes false negatives, while low specificity increases false positives. The trade-off between these metrics is fundamental in diagnostic testing.
**Why the Correct Answer is Right**
A test with **high sensitivity** correctly identifies most diseased individuals (low false negatives), making it ideal for ruling out disease when negative (**SNOUT** mnemonic). However, **low specificity** means it incorrectly labels many healthy individuals as positive (high false positives). This combination results in **more false positives and fewer false negatives**. For example, a test with 95% sensitivity and 50% specificity would miss very few true cases but misclassify half of healthy people as diseased.
**Why Each Wrong Option is Incorrect**
**Option A:** Suggests "More true positives and true negatives"—incorrect because low specificity reduces true negatives.
**Option B:** Claims "Fewer false positives and false negatives"—incorrect as low specificity increases false positives.
**Option C:** States "Equal false positives and false negatives"—incorrect due to the inherent imbalance from the metrics.
**Clinical Pearl / High-Yield Fact**
**"SNOUT and SPIN"** are critical mnemonics: