TY - JOUR T1 - Validity of the European short list of respiratory diseases: a 40-year autopsy study JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J SP - 953 LP - 961 DO - 10.1183/09031936.00085214 VL - 45 IS - 4 AU - Anne K. Gulsvik AU - Andreas H. Henriksen AU - Einar Svendsen AU - Sjur Humerfelt AU - Amund Gulsvik Y1 - 2015/04/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/45/4/953.abstract N2 - The predictors of autopsy and the accuracy of European short list (E) codes of respiratory diseases lack recent knowledge.A 10% random sample (n=6811) of inhabitants of Bergen, Norway, aged 20–70 years, was invited to participate in a survey in 1965–1971 (participation rate 83%).By December 31, 2005, 4387 (64%) participants had died and 1163 (27% of the deceased) had been given an autopsy. Causes of death were tuberculosis (E02, 0.2%), lung malignancy (E15, 3.5%), influenza (E38, 0.2%), pneumonia (E39, 6.5%) and chronic lower respiratory diseases (E40, 3.2%). Male sex, early deaths in the surveillance period and E15 were positive predictors of an autopsy examination, whereas old age and E39 were strong negative predictors. Among those referred for a post mortem examination, the cause of death was verified as tuberculosis in 0.3%, lung cancer in 8.1%, acute pneumonia in 2.0% and chronic obstructive lung diseases in 4.9%. Cohen’s kappa coefficients (E codes versus autopsy) were 0.91 (95% CI 0.86–0.96) for E15, 0.37 (95% CI 0.20–0.54) for E39 and 0.65 (95% CI 0.54–0.76) for E40.These findings matter when deaths from respiratory diseases are used as end-points in epidemiological association studies and clinical trials.E codes of mortality and autopsy records agree perfectly for lung cancer but only fairly for pneumonia http://ow.ly/CRkCp ER -