Congenital heart diseases are common in foetuses, with an incidence greater than six times that of chromosomal abnormalities; however, experts in cardiac anatomy have evaluated only the foetuses of pregnant women with increased risk for congenital heart disease. Over the years, it has become clear that congenital heart disease occur in foetuses of low-risk women. In the mid-1980s, a proposal to expand the assessment of cardiac anatomy was presented to obstetricians in order to improve prenatal screening. With the aim to systematise and improve the diagnosis of congenital heart disease in foetuses, the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology established an ultrasound heart examination guideline. In this review, we have described the important features of this guideline and discussed the applications of this tool in clinical practice.

We performed a literature search of the National Library of Medicine for publications released between 2000 and 2012; we used search terms pertinent to congenital heart disease, such as foetal echocardiography, foetal heart and cardiac screening examination.

The guidelines serve as a standard and help to systematise the screening for congenital heart diseases, but we think that some topics may be added to design the most appropriate screening method. However, we cannot expand the topics to be evaluated in this examination without good training of sonographers who undergo this screening.

Although the screening standardisation is a good tool to be used in day-to-day practice, the increment of aortic and ductal archs and colour Doppler to heart screening could be useful to detect further cardiac defects.