Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter-2 Inhibitor-Related Diabetic Ketoacidosis: Accuracy Verification of Operational Definition

BACKGROUND: The most important aspect of a retrospective cohort study is the operational definition (OP) of the disease. We developed a detailed OP for the detection of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) related to diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). The OP was systemically verified and analyzed. METHODS: All patients prescribed SGLT2i at four university hospitals were enrolled in this experiment. A DKA diagnostic algorithm was created and distributed to each hospital; subsequently, the number of SGLT2i-related DKAs was confirmed. Then, the algorithm functionality was verified through manual chart reviews by an endocrinologist using the same OP. RESULTS: A total of 8,958 patients were initially prescribed SGLT2i. According to the algorithm, 0.18% (16/8,958) were confirmed to have SGLT2i-related DKA. However, based on manual chart reviews of these 16 cases, there was only one case of SGLT2i-related DKA (positive predictive value = 6.3%). Even after repeatedly narrowing the diagnosis range of the algorithm, the effect of a positive predictive value was insignificant (6.3–10.0%, P > 0.999). CONCLUSION: Owing to the nature of electronic medical record data, we could not create an algorithm that clearly differentiates SGLT2i-related DKA despite repeated attempts. In all retrospective studies, a portion of the samples should be randomly selected to confirm the accuracy of the OP through chart review. In retrospective cohort studies in which chart review is not possible, it will be difficult to guarantee the reliability of the results.