Final answer:
As test sensitivity increases, false negatives decrease, meaning a sensitive test is less likely to fail to detect a true condition. High sensitivity with lower specificity can increase false positives. A negative result in a highly sensitive test strongly suggests the absence of the condition.
Step-by-step explanation:
As sensitivity increases, the number of false negatives decreases in medical testing. A false negative occurs when a test incorrectly indicates that a person does not have a condition when they actually do. As a test becomes more sensitive, it is less likely to miss the presence of the condition, thereby reducing the occurrence of false negatives.
A false positive, on the other hand, is when a test incorrectly suggests that a person has a condition when they do not. This can happen for a variety of reasons, such as cross-reactivity with other substances, errors in test administration, or inherent limitations in the test's design. High test sensitivity can sometimes lead to an increased number of false positives if the specificity is not equally high.
If a patient tests negative on a highly sensitive test, the likelihood that this person is actually infected with the pathogen is very low, since high sensitivity corresponds to high true negative rate.