Sudden unexpected deaths due to natural causes in Istanbul/Turkey: (10 years retrospective study)

The incidence and the causes of natural deaths in people ranging in age from 0 to 92 years were investigated. The material was collected from 19610 cases in which a medico-legal autopsy had been performed at the Council of Forensic Medicine, Ministry of Justice, Istanbul, Turkey. There were 3649 natural deaths between 1987 and 1996. Most of the cases were male (3002/82.3%) and overall ratio of males to females was approximately 5:1. About half of the cases died between third and fifth decades (1765/48.3%). Ischaemic heart disease accounted for 1518 (41.6%) of the cases and non- ischaemic heart disease was the cause of natural death in 171 (7.4%) cases. Cardiac diseases were followed by respiratory (697/9.1%) and central nervous system (307/8.4%) diseases. This study shows that although ischaemic heart disease is the largest cause of natural death, some other causes like tuberculosis and pneumonia are still endemic