Convergence Behavior of Optimal Cut-Off Points Derived from Receiver Operating Characteristics Curve Analysis: A Simulation Study

The area under the receiver operating characteristics curve is a popular measure of overall discriminatory power continuous variable used to indicate presence an outcome interest, such as disease or progression. In clinical practice, use cut-off points benchmark values for further treatment planning greatly appreciated, despite loss information that dichotomization implies. Optimal are often derived from fixed sample size studies, and aim this study was investigate convergence behavior optimal with increasing explore heuristic path-based algorithm point determination targets stagnating values. To end, closest-to-(0,1) criterion in analysis used, aimed at deviated less than 1% previous iteration. Such stopped after only few iterations, thereby implicating practicable sizes; however, result was, best, rough estimate unbiased positively negatively biased prevalence 0.5, smaller larger respectively.