RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to evaluate the validity of the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10) codes for identifying patients who suffered out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). METHODS: Consecutive data pertaining to adult patients who suffered OHCA or received ICD-10 codes for cardiac arrest were collected. Patient characteristics and clinical data during the period from January 2015 to December 2016 were obtained. The sensitivity and positive predictive value (PPV) of each code for identifying OHCA were calculated and an optimal algorithm using diagnostic and procedure codes to detect OHCA patients was selected. The kappa coefficient was calculated to examine the agreement between algorithm-detected cases and true OHCA patients. RESULTS: A total of 397 patients were included in this study. The single use of ICD-10 codes was an insensitive method for identifying OHCA patients. Combination of diagnostic codes and procedure codes showed a good sensitivity (98.6%) and PPV (94.8%) for identifying OHCA patients. The agreement between the optimal algorithm and true OHCA was excellent (κ=0.970). CONCLUSION: Using ICD-10 codes for identifying OHCA patients is an insensitive method. The combination of ICD-10 codes and procedure codes can be an alternative search method.