Epidemiologic aspects of sudden death in the Constanţa District

: This study is aimed to clarify some aspects of the cardiac sudden death (CSD) in the context of the general pathology. 5842 cases were taken into study, representing the total number of autopsies performed in the Forensic Department of Constanţa District between 1997-2002 (subjects of both sexes aged 6 months to 82 years). Sudden death represents 80% of the non-violent death cases. We found 1563 cases of sudden death, out of which 891 were CSD (57%). The yearly distribution of the CSD cases was: 1997 - 205 cases (58.23%), 1998 - 164 (56%), 1999 - 161 (60%), 2000 - 121 (67.6%), 2001 - 98 (52.4%), 2002 - 142 (50.17%). Coronary atherosclerosis was the cause of 78% of the CSD. They are followed by far by other causes: respiratory (24.3%), meningo-cerebral (5.05%), digestive (2.3%), endocrine (1.85%), infectious (1.6%), the syndrome of the child sudden death (1.28%), renal (0.64%), neurological (0.57%), allergic (0.9%), hematological (0.32%), the syndrome of the sportsmen sudden death (0.32%). These figures are age-dependent: between 45-65 years of age the cardiovascular/respiratory causes ratio is of 5/1 ; it decreases to lesser ages to become inversed (1/2). The ratio to the meningo-cerebral causes is of 25/1 and largely decreases so that over 70 years of age it becomes usually 2/1 and sometimes 1/1.