title: Identifying Primary Spontaneous Pneumothorax from Administrative Databases: A Validation Study.
abstract: Introduction. Primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) is a disorder commonly encountered in healthy young individuals. There is no differentiation between PSP and secondary pneumothorax (SP) in the current version of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). This complicates the conduct of epidemiological studies on the subject. Objective. To validate the accuracy of an algorithm that identifies cases of PSP from administrative databases. Methods. The charts of 150 patients who consulted the emergency room (ER) with a recorded main diagnosis of pneumothorax were reviewed to define the type of pneumothorax that occurred. The corresponding hospital administrative data collected during previous hospitalizations and ER visits were processed through the proposed algorithm. The results were compared over two different age groups. Results. There were 144 cases of pneumothorax correctly coded (96%). The results obtained from the PSP algorithm demonstrated a significantly higher sensitivity (97% versus 81%, p = 0.038) and positive predictive value (87% versus 46%, p < 0.001) in patients under 40 years of age than in older patients. Conclusions. The proposed algorithm is adequate to identify cases of PSP from administrative databases in the age group classically associated with the disease. This makes possible its utilization in large population-based studies.
authors.affiliation: Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Western University, London, ON, Canada N6A 3K7; Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Western University, London, ON, Canada N6A 3K7.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Frechette
authors.affiliation: Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Western University, London, ON, Canada N6A 3K7.
authors.forename: Keegan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Guidolin
authors.affiliation: Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Western University, London, ON, Canada N6A 3K7.
authors.forename: Ayman
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Seyam
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Western University, London, ON, Canada N6A 3K7.
authors.forename: Yun-Hee
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Surgery, Department of Surgery, Western University, London, ON, Canada N6A 3K7.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: London Health Sciences Centre, London, ON, Canada N6A 5W9.
authors.forename: J Andrew
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: McClure
authors.affiliation: London Health Sciences Centre, London, ON, Canada N6A 5W9.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Winick-Ng
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Western University, London, ON, Canada N6A 3K7; Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, Western University, London, ON, Canada N6A 3K7.
authors.forename: Blayne
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Welk
authors.affiliation: Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Western University, London, ON, Canada N6A 3K7; Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Western University, London, ON, Canada N6A 3K7.
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Malthaner
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D063886:Patient Discharge Summaries; D011030:Pneumothorax; D012189:Retrospective Studies