| **National Center    for     Health Statistics            Division of Data     Services            6525 Belcrest Road     Hyattsville, MD     20782-2003     (301)458-4636      **

 

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**International    Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10)**

The *International Classification of    Diseases* (ICD) is designed to promote international comparability in the collection,    processing, classification, and presentation of **mortality statistics**.    This includes providing a format for reporting causes of death on the death certificate.    The reported conditions are then translated into medical codes through use of the    classification structure and the selection and modification rules contained in the    applicable revision of the ICD, published by the World Health Organization (WHO). These    coding rules improve the usefulness of mortality statistics by giving preference to    certain categories, by consolidating conditions, and by systematically selecting a single    cause of death from a reported sequence of conditions. The single selected cause for    tabulation is called the underlying cause of death, and the other reported causes are the    nonunderlying causes of death. The combination of underlying and nonunderlying causes is    the multiple causes of death.

The **ICD has been revised**    periodically to incorporate changes in the medical field. The Tenth Revision (ICD-10)    differs from the Ninth Revision (ICD-9) in a number of respects although the overall    content is similar: First, ICD-10 is printed in a three-volume set compared with     ICD-9's two-volume set. Second, ICD-10 has alphanumeric categories rather than numeric    categories. Third, some chapters have been rearranged, some titles have changed, and    conditions have been regrouped. Fourth, ICD-10 has almost twice as many categories as    ICD-9. Fifth, some fairly minor changes have been made in the coding rules for mortality.

Both hardcopy and electronic versions    of the three-volume set of ICD-10 are available. The contact in the U.S. is the:**WHO Publications Center    USA**    49 Sheridan Avenue    Albany, NY 12210    Tel: 1-518-436-9686    Fax: 1-518-436-7433 

There is also an ICD-10 home page at    the **World Health    Organization's** site. 

The ICD-10 consists of:tabular lists containing cause-of-death    titles and codes    (Volume 1);inclusion and exclusion terms for    cause-of-death titles    (Volume 1); an alphabetical index to diseases and    nature of injury, external causes of injury, table of drugs and chemicals (Volume 3), and description, guidelines, and coding rules    (Volume 2).

The process of converting **from    ICD-9 to ICD-10** affects many aspects of the **mortality data** system    including revision of instruction manuals and medical software.   The most detailed    listing of underlying causes of death used in the United States, the **Each Cause    List (ICD-10)** is available on the CDC/FTP server.

A related classification, the **International Classification    of Diseases, Clinical Modification (ICD-10- CM)**, is currently under    development. It is intended as a replacement for ICD-9-CM, Volumes 1 and 2 (diagnosis).

 

**Mortality Data from the      National Vital Statistics SystemDescription    | News Releases and Fact Sheets      | Data HighlightsMethods | Publications    | Tabulated data      | Micro-dataInternational Activities | Links to Related Sites      | Search NCHSContact Us**
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This page last    reviewed July 26, 2000

**U.S.    DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES****Centers    for Disease Control and Prevention**    National Center for Health Statistics    Division of Data Services     Hyattsville, MD    20782-2003    (301) 458-4636
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