![]() ![]() Movig et al 10 compared discharge records for hospitalised patients with laboratory data and found sensitivities of 1.7% and 13.4% for serum sodium measurements ≤135 and ≤125 mmol/l, respectively. To date, the validity of the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) code for hyponatraemia has been described in two studies. 7–9 There are a number of causes of hyponatraemia such as dehydration from prolonged vomiting, congestive heart failure, some forms of kidney disease and medication use (eg, diuretics). ![]() 5, 6 Depending on its severity and rapidity of onset, hyponatraemia has been associated with morbidities such as confusion, seizures, falls, fractures as well as mortality. Hyponatraemia is an electrolyte disorder and is generally defined by a low serum sodium concentration 3, 4 It is one of the most common types of abnormalities of its kind affecting 15–30% of hospitalised patients. Accordingly, understanding the validity of various diagnostic codes remains of paramount importance. 2 The inaccuracy of codes may introduce measurement error which has a number of implications including underestimation of the true incidence of a condition. Despite their usefulness, an important limitation of these databases is that researchers frequently rely on hospital-based diagnostic codes contained within the databases to define conditions of interest, rather than reference standard diagnoses. 1 They offer several advantages including increased efficiency and large sample sizes. Large health administrative databases are widely used in pharmacoepidemiological and health services research. ![]()
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