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Fecal immunochemical testing for hemoglobin is more specific than stool guaiac testing because fecal immunochemical tests (FITs) return positive results only when globins are present — FITs don't react with foods that have peroxidase activity and aren't positive in patients with upper gastrointestinal (UGI) bleeding, because globin from UGI bleeds is digested. These characteristics negate the need to alter patients' diets, and a single sample usually is sufficient. In this meta-analysis of 19 studies (evaluating 8 different FITs), researchers estimated the diagnostic accuracy of FIT for detecting colorectal cancer.
The pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, and negative likelihood ratio were 0.79, 0.94, 13.10, and 0.23, …