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3  Data

The study uses data taken from New Zealand Health Information Service (NZHIS) that includes any patients who underwent one of the procedures outlined in Table 2. Notably this does not consider patients using the private sector. As such, the figures do not tell a complete story about national intervention rates but only what is happening in the public sector. The codes follow the International Classification of Diseases (ICD9) and are consistent with other recent investigations into cardiac services in New Zealand (Doolan-Noble, Broad, Riddell and North, 2004). Notably it runs from mid 1990 to mid-way through 2004 (which represents the end of the financial year, 2003/04), hence calendar years 1990 and 2004 do not constitute a full year of data.


Table 2– Procedure Codes Used in Data Analysis
Code Procedure
3601 Single vessel PTCA without mention of thrombolytic agent
3602 Single vessel PTCA with thrombolytic agent
3603 Open chest coronary artery angioplasty
3604 Intracoronary artery thrombolytic infusion
3605 Multiple vessel PTCA performed during single operative episode
3606 Dilation/stenting of single coronary vessel
3607 Dilation/stenting of multiple coronary vessels
3609 Other removal of coronary artery obstruction
3610 Aortocoronary bypass for heart revascularization, NOS
3611 Aortocoronary bypass of one coronary artery
3612 Aortocoronary bypass of two coronary arteries
3613 Aortocoronary bypass of three coronary arteries
3614 Aortocoronary bypass of four or more coronary arteries
3615 Single internal mammary-coronary artery bypass
3616 Double internal mammary-coronary artery bypass
3619 Other bypass anastomosis for heart revascularisation
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