Letters to the Editor SWISS MED WKLY 20 09; 139 ( 31–32) : 463–464 · www.smw.ch 463 Accuracy of hospital

discharge coding is important in assessing trends in stroke rates Dear Editor, We read with interest the article by Meyer and colleagues [1]. The authors correctly as-sert some of the limitations in using hospital discharge data in estimating stroke event rates, such as its failure to take into account sufferers of stroke treated outside of the hos-pital setting. However, the use of ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition) diagnostic coding in assessing trends in stroke rates is cautioned for an-other important reason which was not men