Nikki:

I couldn't access the original article.  Its sort of a no brainer that weight loss would differ between those infants who develop hypernatremic dehydration and those who did not. From your synthesis, it doesn't sound like the authors made any attempt to compare sensitivity and specificity cutoffs nor positive and negative predictive values.  Nor did they compare to the 10% weight loss currently in use which can easily be done with ROC curves in the same way that Laurie Nommson Rivers did with diaper counts.

Did the authors actually construct weight loss charts?  Did they actually compare positive and negative predictive values or sensitivity and specificity? 

Best, Susan.

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