The influence of diagnostic subgroups, patient- and hospital characteristics for the validity of cardiovascular diagnoses-Data from a Norwegian hospital trust.

Background: Cardiovascular discharge diagnoses may serve as endpoints in epidemiological studies if they have a high validity. Aim was to study if diagnoses-specific characteristics like type, sub-categories, and position of cardiovascular diagnoses affected diagnostic accuracy.

Methods: Patients (n = 7,164) with a discharge diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction, heart failure or cerebrovascular disease were included.