Cardiovascular malformations constitute a major segment of birth defects with profound medical, psychosocial, and economic consequences. Previous research has mainly focused on clinical methods of diagnosis and treatment, but the need for prediction, prenatal counseling, and preventive interventions requires further knowledge of familial and environmental risk factors. Until now, however, there has been no comprehensive evaluation of major cardiovascular malformations encompassing infant, familial, and environmental factors for the individual subgroups of cardiac lesions. In its detailed presentation of The Baltimore-Washington Infant Study, this provocative text provides the first systematic, epidemiologic assessment of 18 precisely defined cardiovascular malformations, taking into account other associated congenital anomalies. It includes an overview of the study's design and methodology; confirmation of major diagnostic groups by imaging or post-mortem studies; a classification of syndromes and multiple malformations based on updated knowledge of genetics and dysmorphology; and a statistical profile of more than 200 family history variables. By elucidating the factors that may contribute to the occurrence of 18 specific cardiovascular malformations and the similarities and differences of such factors for the diagnostic groups evaluated, this book begins to unravel some of the mysteries of abnormal cardiogenesis.