Objective: The purpose of this 5-year longitudinal study was to assess the diagnostic accuracy of panoramic radiography (PR) in identifying oral pathology at a tertiary care facility.
Methods: A retrospective review of patient files was done, encompassing those of patients who had PR for suspected oral lesions, followed by a biopsy. At various times, several diagnostic accuracy metrics were computed, such as sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR).
Results: The research had 250 patients in total. In terms of identifying oral pathology, PR showed a sensitivity of 85% and a specificity of 90%. There were 80% and 92% PPV and NPV, respectively. With a computed DOR of 25, PR's total discriminating power was found to be high.
Conclusion: In summary, PR consistently demonstrates great diagnostic accuracy in identifying oral pathology at a tertiary care facility. These results confirm that PR is a useful screening technique for oral lesions in standard clinical practice. In order to overcome PR's shortcomings and investigate methods for enhancing its diagnostic effectiveness, more investigation is necessary.
Keywords: Diagnostic accuracy; longitudinal analysis; oral pathology; panoramic radiography; tertiary care center.
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