Louisiana autopsy patterns 1999-2006.

This report presents autopsy trends in Louisiana for 1999-2006 data and provides some comparison with national data for 2003. Mortality data for Louisiana was collected from the field 'autopsy' on the Certificate of Death from 1999-2006 and compared with national data for the year 2003. The overall autopsy rate was 9.3% in Louisiana versus 7.7% in the United States (U.S.) in 2003. Autopsy rates were higher than those of the U.S. in almost all categories of personal factors (gender, race and age group). Louisiana's autopsy levels were generally greater for both natural disease (3.7% versus 3.5% for the U.S.) and the high autopsy rate group (61.1% versus 54.3% for the U.S.).