[An epidemiological study of congenital heart disease. I. Incidence of cardiovascular malformations in 11,584 live-born babies in the District of Florence (Italy) (author's transl)].

11,584 consecutive live-born babies in the Ostetric Clinic of Florence in the years 1975 and 1976 were examined for the presence of congenital heart disease. Diagnosis was made by necropsy, cardiac catheterization and operation in 20% of cases and by clinical observations in 80%. The 74% of babies who were diagnosed as affected by congenital heart disease at birth were eventually controlled. The incidence of congenital heart disease was 7.1% in 10,789 live-born of weight over 2500 g while it was 37% in 795 under such weight. Global incidence was 9.2%. The first essentials in epidemiological study of congenital heart malformations is to define the method which is used for diagnosis since this is the primary factor responsible for wide variations in incidence. It is suggested that the institution of a Regional Register of malformations would allow more accurate estimate of overall incidence of congenital cardiopathies.