Bulimia Nervosa: Sensitivity and Specificity

Introduction: Binging plus/minus purging.

Prevalence

The sensitivity and specificity of findings for Bulimia Nervosa are listed below. See the left navigation bar to change the display.

Specific Findings

Finding	Sensitivity	Specificity	Comments, Study
Hypokalemia	19%	100%	Study: Int J Eat Disord. 1997 Jan;21(1):95-8. PMID: 8986523
Abnormal Serum Chloride	9%	100%	not independent of hypokalemia effect (i.e. does not add additional predictive power over hypo-K) Study: Int J Eat Disord. 1997 Jan;21(1):95-8. PMID: 8986523
Urine Sodium to Chloride Ratio	52%	95%	>1.16 Study: Int J Eat Disord. 2001 Nov;30(3):279-87. PMID: 11746287
Fractional Excretion of Sodium	37%	95%	>1.04 Study: Int J Eat Disord. 2001 Nov;30(3):279-87. PMID: 11746287

Poorly Diagnostic Findings

25%

84%

Study: Int J Eat Disord. 1997 Jan;21(1):95-8. PMID: 8986523

Sensitivity = 45%

specificity not assessed.

Study: Int J Eat Disord. 1999 Sep;26(2):223-7. PMID: 10422613