Agreement between Prehospital and Final Diagnosis in Patients with Acute Allergic Reactions: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: Acute allergic reactions are usually first encountered in the prehospital setting and account for about 0.3% to 0.8% of prehospital runs in different countries. Right, and rapid recognition and treatment are necessary to decrease mortality and morbidity, especially in severe critical cases. This study evaluates the accuracy of prehospital care providers’ diagnosis in patients with acute allergic reactions in comparison with final (discharge) diagnosis as the gold standard.

Methods: Patients who were transported to 2 urban referral hospitals between 2008 and 2014 under the dispatch code of “acute allergic reaction” were included in the study, retrospectively. Demographic data, etiology of an allergic reaction, clinical presentations, vital signs stability, and need for epinephrine injection were evaluated. The prehospital care providers’ diagnosis (documented on-call report) was compared with the final diagnosis (documented on discharge summary form).

Results: A total of 300 patients were included in the study. In 55 (18.3%) cases the prehospital care providers’ and final diagnoses were different. Diagnoses were similar in 245 (81.6%) patients. Kappa coefficient was calculated as 0.621which shows a moderate-to-substantial agreement between prehospital and final diagnoses. Fifteen patients (5%) were discharged from the hospital with a diagnosis of anaphylaxis and only 4 cases (26.6%) were diagnosed in the prehospital setting.

Conclusion: Although the overall agreement between prehospital and final diagnosis of acute allergic reactions calculated in this study was good, the accuracy of diagnosing the anaphylaxis (as the most critical allergic reaction with a potential fatality) was less than optimal.