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The issue of this review is diagnostic accuracy studies by means of which it can be determined how precisely a test can identify patients with or without a given target condition. Diagnostic accuracy studies vary substantially in design but usually report outcome measures such as sensitivity and specificity. Diagnostic accuracy studies can be critically appraised by using QUADAS-2. Some study characteristics to consider is the avoidance of a case-control study design, patient selection, and the reference standard. Also, the statistical imprecision and the applicability of a study to a general population are essential factors to consider., (Published under Open Access CC-BY-NC-BD 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.)

The outcome of clinical studies is often reduced to the statistical significance of results by indicating a p-value below the 5% significance level. Hypothesis testing and, through that, the p-value is commonly used, but their meaning is frequently misinterpreted in clinical research. The concept of hypothesis testing is explained and some pitfalls including those of multiple testing are given. The conceptual difference between exploratory and confirmatory hypothesis testing is discussed, and a better use of p-values, which includes presenting p-values with two or three decimals, is suggested.