[The evaluation of postomortem heart weight (author's transl)]

In 1974 we published the "method of differentiated relative heart weight" for the evaluation of the postmortem heart weight. It is not the simple relation of heart to body weight of 1/200 that is used, but--depending on the body weight--1/175 for normal weight, 1/150 for underweight and 1/200 for overweight. This method is now submitted a test by means of 218 exactly diagnosed cases and the heart weights are compared with the mean values of Linzbach. If the weight of a heart is lower than the weight estimated by our method one can conclude, that the patient did not suffer from hypertension and/or from cor pulmonale. If the heart weight is higher than the estimated value a pathological heart weight is to be supposed, but normotension cannot be excluded, especially in women. In those cases the comparison of the heart weight with the mean values of Linzbach is recommended.