TY - JOUR T1 - Dr. Khurana replies JF - The Journal of Rheumatology JO - J Rheumatol SP - 1084 LP - 1084 DO - 10.3899/jrheum.090049 VL - 36 IS - 5 AU - RITU KHURANA Y1 - 2009/05/01 UR - http://www.jrheum.org/content/36/5/1084.2.abstract N2 - To the Editor:We appreciate the comments from Dr. Ranganathan and colleagues. We agree that in a large database there are bound to be some inconsistencies, but we believe the large patient population in our database and use of the computerized diagnosis database (with ICD coding methods) decreases the misclassification and recall bias to a large extent.To answer specific questions raised by Dr. Ranganathan, et al: 1. “Use of ICD-9 code for RA accuracy”: The report cited by Dr. Ranganathan (Singh, et al2 [above]) suggests the administrative data definition of RA by ICD code 714.0 alone as 100% sensitive but with only 55% specificity. The addition of rheumatoid factor (RF) titer to ICD code 714.0 increased the specificity to 88% with a sensitivity of 91%. Further addition of DMARD prescription changed the sensitivity to only 76% … E-mail: ritu.khurana{at}gmail.com ER -