Receiver operating characteristic curve

Abstract

A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve is a plot of tradeoff between sensitivity and specificity. It is a plot that evaluates a diagnostic test for a continuous variable between diseased and non-diseased subjects. The validity of a diagnostic test is indicated by the area under the curve (AUC). The coordinates of ROC curves are used to determine the optimal cut-off threshold value of the test which has maximum sensitivity and specificity. The ROC curves can also be used to compare the accuracy of two or more diagnostic tests.

Keywords

• roc curve
• line of equality
• area under the curve (auc)