Clinical validation of in-hospital stroke diagnosis

In-hospital stroke cases occur during hospitalization for another diagnosis and reflect a clinically distinct cohort from community-onset stroke. The objective was to validate the diagnostic accuracy of in-hospital stroke identification in stroke audit data at a large teaching hospital.

A retrospective clinical validation of in-hospital stroke diagnoses from two linked data sources was completed for a 2-year period from January 1^st 2020 to December 31^st 2021. The linked data sources include the Hospital Inpatient Enquiry system which assigns coded stroke diagnoses at discharge and/or the local stroke audit coordinators who work clinically in stroke teams and input additional specific clinical data. Diagnostic sensitivity, specificity and the level of agreement using an unweighted Cohen's Kappa were calculated.

There were 597 strokes admitted during the 2-year period. The median age was 72 years and 55% occurred in males. In total, 88 cases of in-hospital stroke were clinically validated yielding an in-hospital stroke rate of 15%. The clinical audit coordinator identified in-hospital stroke with higher sensitivity (86%; 95% CI 77%-93%) whereas the coding process was more specific at 96% (95% CI 85% to 99%). Levels of agreement with the clinically validated gold standard sample were moderate for the audit coordinator and coding process with κ = 0.57 and K = 0.42 respectively. When both data sources were combined the level of agreement was substantial (κ = 0.65; p < .000).

Clinical validation studies are required to reinforce data quality within stroke registers. Combining clinical and administrative data sources improves diagnostic accuracy for in-hospital stroke identification.