I am confused between B & C. How to approach this question.
Appendicitis (inflammation of the appendix) is potentially fatal; consequently, patients with symptoms strongly suggesting appendicitis almost have their appendix removed. The appropriate surgery is low- risk but performed unnecessarily in about 20 percent of all cases. A newly developed internal scan for appendicitis is highly accurate, producing two misdiagnoses for every 98 correct diagnoses. Clearly, using this test, doctors can largely avoid unnecessary removals of the appendix without, however, performing any fewer necessary ones than before, since .
A. the patients who are correctly diagnosed with this test as not having appendicitis invariably have medical conditions that are much less serious than appendicitis
B. the misdiagnoses produced by this test are always instances of attributing appendicitis to someone who does not, in fact, have it
C. all of the patients who are diagnosed with this test as having appendicitis do, in fact, have appendicitis
D. every patient who is diagnosed with this test as having appendicitis has more than one of the symptoms generally associated with appendicitis
E. the only patients who are misdiagnosed using this test are patients who lack one or more of the symptoms that are generally associated with appendicitis
Using the newly developed scan,
- Doctors could avoid unnecessary appendix removals
- Doctors wouldn’t miss genuine cases in which the appendix needs to be removed
The sentence says “largely avoid unnecessary removals” and not “completely avoid unnecessary removals”
Let’s look at the answer choices
A: Other medical conditions are irrelevant. Hence this answer choice is incorrect
B: If the misdiagnoses produced by the new scan are always cases of diagnosing someone perfectly healthy with appendicitis, doctors will end up performing unnecessary surgeries. However, they will never miss a genuine case. Hence this is the correct answer choice.
If you are still unsure, try negating this answer choice. “The misdiagnoses produced by this test are always instances of attributing appendicitis to someone who does not, in fact, have it” – If this were to be true, there’s no point in using the new scan.
C: Doesn’t talk about the misdiagnoses. The doctors might miss a genuine case. Hence this answer choice is incorrect
D: Appendicitis symptoms don’t tell us anything about the number or the accuracy of surgeries performed by doctors. Irrelevant. Hence this answer choice is incorrect
E: Same as D. Hence this answer choice is incorrect