The way that the best estimate clinical diagnosis of ASD (autism spectrum disorders) that are assigned to pediatric patients appears to vary widely, researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York Times after carrying out a study in 12 university research centers.
The authors explained that the background information to the diagnostic tools in the field of ASD have been instrumental in fusion samples, comparison of results across studies, and the definition of populations. However, BEC (best clinical estimate) diagnoses of autism spectrum disorders have been the gold standard for a long time. Examples of covered autism spectrum disorders include Asperger syndrome, autistic disorder, and PDD-NOS (pervasive developmental disorder not-otherwise specified).
"Catherine Lord, Ph.D. and the team set out to determine whether the relationship between clinical diagnosis and appearance of the behavior of the various autism spectrum disorders varies from site to site across the 12 universities in their observational study"
The study included 1814 men and women who were clinically diagnosed 288 with ASD after two diagnostic assessments. The researchers collected data on demographics, genetic research and development information.
The authors explained that even in these 12 sites, with documentation of compliance and the use of standardized diagnostic instruments, clinical differences between subtypes of categorical diagnosis was unreliable.
