Cardiology Coding Alert

Question:I wanted to look up the ICD-9 codes for sarcoidosis with cardiomyopathy in my ICD-9 manual. In the index, under "sarcoidosis, cardiac," the listing is "135 [425.8]," with 425.8 italicized. When I looked up 425.8 in the tabular list, that code and definition were in italics. What do the brackets and italics indicate in this sort of listing?Georgia SubscriberAnswer:Most likely, your manual uses the italics to catch your attention so you remember not to use 425.8 (Cardiomyopathy in other disease classified elsewhere) as a first-listed diagnosis. Instead, the italicized code represents a manifestation of another disease, which you should code first. A note under 425.8 instructs you to "code first underlying disease." Included in the list of underlying diseases is "sarcoidosis (135)." So on the claim, you should list 135 (Sarcoidosis) first and report 425.8 as a secondary code.Note that 135 is one of the small number of valid three-digit [...]