Abstract
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.