Table 3. Distribution of pathological diagnoses at autopsy.

	1988 (GDR)			1988 (FRG)			1993			1998			2003			2008			Total
	all	study	c.o.d.	all	study	c.o.d.	all	study	c.o.d.	all	study	c.o.d.	all	study	c.o.d.	all	study	c.o.d.	all	study	c.o.d.
n (pat.)  = 100%	1198	300	300	305	300	300	387	300	300	537	300	300	482	300	300	390	300	300	3299	1800	1800
CV [%]	61.0	61.3	39.7	93.1	93.0	42.3	60.5	60.0	40.7	83.8	82.3	42.3	90.5	92.7	43.3	85.6	85.7	46.3	74.8	79.2	42.4
NP [%]	45.3	45.3	31.3	31.5	31.7	20.3	35.9	34.7	24.3	41.7	42.7	28.0	36.5	34.3	23.0	33.6	32.0	15.0	39.7	36.8	23.7
PU [%]	28.4	29.3	0.3	58.0	58.0	0.0	22.2	23.0	0.0	36.5	36.7	0.0	38.8	39.7	0.0	40.0	40.3	0.0	34.6	37.8	0.1
RE [%]	6.4	7.3	1.0	18.4	18.7	4.0	4.7	5.3	1.3	3.9	4.3	0.3	6.6	7.0	0.0	7.4	7.7	0.0	7.1	8.4	1.1
INF [%]	2.8	3.7	2.3	5.6	5.7	3.0	5.2	6.0	3.0	9.5	12.0	8.0	12.3	13.6	10.3	7.9	9.7	8.0	6.4	8.5	5.8
GI [%]	22.0	21.7	9.7	35.4	35.0	6.0	28.7	29.0	15.7	20.3	18.7	5.0	24.7	25.7	6.0	30.5	33.0	8.7	25.2	27.2	8.5
MISC [%]	25.0	21.7	0.7	51.1	51.7	1.3	27.7	27.3	1.7	30.5	30.3	2.0	27.2	27.0	3.0	29.2	30.0	8.0	29.4	31.3	2.8

“All” comprises the total number of cases investigated from the respective year. The “study” group of a year relates to the cohort randomly selected from the “all” group in order to determine the discrepancy rate. The data presented here do not reveal significant differences between “all” and “study” group concerning the distribution of post-mortem diagnoses, therefore representativeness can be assumed. “c.o.d.” shows the distribution of causes of death of the “study” group with regard to the disease groups considered.

Disease groups according to ICD-10: CV – cardiovascular, NP – neoplastic, PU – pulmonary, RE – renal/genitourinary, INF – infectious, GI – gastrointestinal, MISC – miscellaneous.