• Kristyn S Beam, Matthew Lee, Keith Hirst, Andrew Beam, and Richard B Parad.
• Department of Neonatology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA. kbeam@bidmc.harvard.edu.
• J Perinatol. 2021 Apr 1; 41 (4): 764-771.

ObjectiveInternational Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes in electronic health records (EHRs) are increasingly used for health services research, in spite of unknown diagnostic accuracy. The accuracy of ICD codes to identify bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is unknown.Study DesignRetrospective cohort study in a single-center NICU (n = 166) to evaluate sensitivity and specificity of ICD-10 codes for the diagnosis of BPD. Analysis of large insurance claims database (n = 7887) to determine date of assignment of the code.ResultsThe sensitivity of any BPD-related ICD codes ranged from 0.82 to 0.95, while the specificity ranged from 0.25 to 0.36. In a large national insurance database, the most common date of ICD-9 or ICD-10 code assignment was the day of birth, which is inconsistent with the clinical definition.ConclusionsICD codes registered for BPD are unlikely to accurately reflect the current clinical definition and should be interpreted with caution.

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