[Early non-invasive diagnosis of congenital heart defects].

During a period of 22 months there were 84 cases of congenital cardiac malformations diagnosed during the first year of life. This figure corresponds to about 80% of all existing cardiac malformations present in the population covered. Noninvasive measures including echocardiography were sufficient for diagnostic and therapeutic decisions in 75% of the cases. 18% of the malformations had to be operated during the first year of life. There were 8 deaths, 5 of them due to irreparable malformations or underlying conditions.