Accuracy of hospital discharge abstracts for identifying stroke. Stroke

stroke occurrence, service use, and cost of care originated with hospital discharge abstracts. This article uses the unique resources of the Rochester Epidemiology Project to estimate the sensitivity and positive predictive value of hospital dis-charge abstracts for incident stroke. Methods The Rochester Stroke Registry was used to iden-tify all confirmed first strokes (hospitalized and nonhospital-ized) among Rochester residents for 1970, 1980, 1984, and 1989 (n=364). The sensitivity of discharge abstracts was estimated by following these individuals for 12 months after stroke to determine the proportion assigned a discharge diagnosis of cerebrovascular disease {International Classifica-tion of Diseases [LCD] codes 430 through 438.9). The positive predictive value of discharge abstracts was assessed by identi-fying all hospitalizations of Rochester residents with an IC