Accuracy ofdiagnostic coding ofhospital admissions forcryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis

Todetermine theaccuracy ofdiagnostic coding ofcryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis, thecasenotesof166admissions tofour hospitals werereviewed. Theseconsisted ofalladmissions thathadbeencodedas "idiopathic fibrosing alveolitis" (ICD code516.3: 97admissions) oras"postinflammatory pulmonary fibrosis" (ICD code515.9: 69admissions). Of 88availablerecordsof admissions codedas idiopathic fibrosing alveolitis, 70(80%) patients haddefinite cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis, and six(7%)possible cryptogenicfibrosing alveolitis according topredetermined conventional clinical criteria. Onlyseven(8%)admissions wereclearly codedwrongly. Sixtyfour records wereavailable forpatients coded ashavingpostinflammatory pulmonary fibrosis; 16(25%)ofthesepatients had definite cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis, a further12(19%)hadpossible cryptogenicfibrosing alveolitis or fibrosing alveolitis with a connectivetissue disorder, andtheremainderhada very widerangeofdiagnoses. Inthisstudy the idiopathic fibrosing alveolitis (ICD516.3) codewasrelatively reliable, buta substantial proportion ofadmissions coded under postinflammatory pulmonary fibrosis (ICD515.9) alsohadcryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis andcode515.9 wasof little diagnostic value.The dataare inadequate forcasefinding, thoughin respect ofcryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis may beadequate forplanning purposes. Therecontinues tobea needformore medicalinputintothe processof diagnostic coding.