Despite the heterogeneous nature of congenital defects, an increasing number of aetiologically specific entities are being delineated, which is partly due to the increasing use of radiology. Data concerning the aetiology are especially important to the parents, who need information on the risk of recurrence for future pregnancies. During 1980-1982 a postmortem radiologic investigation was carried out on 514 perinatally dead infants from 22 hospitals in Finland. Pathologic radiologic findings were seen in 30 per cent of the material. Ninety-nine cases had congenital defects, while the rest showed other skeletal or soft tissue abnormalities. Of those with congenital defects, there were 6 osteochondrodysplasias, 16 chromosomal malformation syndromes, 13 autosomal recessive inherited malformation syndromes and 18 multiple malformation syndromes of unknown aetiology. There were also 18 cases with malformation sequences and 10 single malformations with abnormal radiologic findings. Congenital defects due to disruptions were detected in 12 cases and defects due to deformations in 7. The present article includes a review of the radiologic findings in 514 cases, with special reference to the skeletal findings.