Diagnosis of cardiac anomalies in offspring of women with congenital heart disease: is fetal echocardiography enough?

Detailed follow-up in a series of 276 mothers with congenital heart disease--whose children are at increased risk of heart disease--demonstrated that, although a fetal echocardiography is reliable in detecting major disease, some minor lesions are undetectable until after birth. Most of these minor defects will be diagnosed by routine clinical cardiac examination and can be confirmed by pediatric echocardiography.