An understanding of normal cardiovascular development is essential to
appreciating the abnormalities seen in congenital heart disease. The cardiovascular
system develops within the mesoderm and through the process of folding, and
establishment of the body axis, patterning and laterality it transforms from blood
islands into the primitive heart tube and then the complex cardiac structures that supply
the fetus. This chapter will discuss the embryological formation of the cardiovascular
system and how deviations from normal development result in common cardiac
defects.
Keywords: Cardiovascular development, Cardiovascular embryology, Congenital heart defects, Embryology.
