Validation of an Algorithm Allowing Identification of Primary Spontaneous Pneumothorax Cases from Administrative Databases
Abstract
Introduction: There is no differentiation between primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) and secondary pneumothorax (SP) in the current version of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). Objective: To validate the accuracy of an algorithm that identifies cases of PSP from administrative databases. Methods: The charts of 150 patients who attended the emergency room (ER) with a recorded main diagnosis of pneumothorax were reviewed. 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: The results obtained from the PSP algorithm demonstrated a significantly higher sensitivity (97% vs. 81%, p=0.038) and positive predictive value (87% vs. 46%, p