ABSTRACT
The HP study group addressed the issue of the clinical diagnostic criteria of HP in a prospective multicenter cohort study (8). Its objective was to develop a clinical prediction rule for the diagnosis of active HP. Regression analyses identified six significant predictors of active HP (Table 27.3). The clinical prediction model produced an equation expressing the probability of HP as a function of the statistically significant variables. From this equation, a table of probability for combinations of predictors was constructed (Table 27.4). Such an exercise aims at helping clinicians to arrive at a more accurate estimate of probability of HP and decide whether further investigation is needed to either rule in or rule out HP.
