Sudden Death and Myocardial Infarction in Minnesota

To the Editor: There have been fundamental changes during the past 15 years in the investigation and certification of death in Minnesota. Two of these changes, due to the gradual development of modern forensic systems for investigation of death in five of the seven counties (and 1.8 million of the approximately 2.0 million 1980 population) examined by Gillum et al. in the December 1 issue,¹ relate directly to the Minnesota Heart Survey data: certification of persons who have a witnessed, sudden unexpected death, and certification of those who have an unwitnessed terminal event and are found dead, usually out of.