[Histopathologic evaluation of death certificates in Soria in 1985]

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the quality of the Death Certificates by means of the Death Statistics Bulletins, in their NEOPLASIC aspect in the year 1985 in the Province of Soria, determining the histopathologic confirmation of the deaths by means of the neoplasic patients' records in the two existing Pathology Services. An overall histologic verification of 80.76% is observed in the cases with an I.C. of +/- 4.79. In the case of BREAST, HEMATOLOGIC, OROPHARYNX, ENDOMETRIUM, ESOPHAGUS, OVARIAN, LARYNX and VULVA tumors, it is 100%. Whereas it is 14.3% in HEPATIC Tumors. Of the total of deaths registered in said year, the percentage of deaths caused by malignant neoplasias is over 26%, more than a fourth of which were Gastric. The preparation of the Death Certificates should be modified so that they can be objectively evaluated epidemiologically without bias or mistakes.