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Sudden cardiac death (called as sudden cardiac arrest) is defined as an unexpected, surprising death of cardiac origine, which occurs in a limited time frame, usually within an hour following the appearance of symptoms in a person with or without prior cardiac history. We performed a retrospective analysis of autopsy cases from the Institute of Legal Medicine Tg. Mureş in a 3 year period (2005-2007). We examined 1836 autopsy protocols, 1334 violent deaths and 502 non-violent deaths. We studied the incidence of sudden death based on sex, origine, cause of death, age group distribution and alcohol consumption. The incidence of sudden deaths in Mures County is between 26,84-29,30%, lower than the incidence of violent deaths. Sudden death is more frequent in males (71,87-75,66). Alcohol consumption is present in 16,25-19,57%. Cardiovascular pathology has the leading incidence of mortality, 54,24-58,20% of the total sudden deaths. The distribution of cardiovascular pathology in sudden death is stenotic coronary atherosclerosis (55,08%-60.24%) and the cardiac sudden death without obvious cause (miocard dystrophy, cardiomegalia, dilatativ cardiomyopathy)(15.66%-17.79%) Sudden death occurs with the highest frequency between 41 and 60 years of age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]