The Association of Various Placental Lesions with Perinatal Outcome in Preterm Births

Abstract

Objective: Present study was designed to identify various lesions in placenta and investigate their impact on neonatal and perinatal outcome and also to determine the frequency of various inflammatory lesions in placenta. Materials and Methods: Placentae of 60 singleton non-anomalous preterm births were examined at Department of pathology at Tertiary care centre. Complete placental examination including both macroscopic and microscopic examination with the help of Haematoxylin and Eosin staining done. Thereafter placental lesions were classified according to Redline criteria for classification of placental pathology. Thereafter placental lesions were correlated with perinatal mortality and neonatal morbidity in early neonatal period. The relevant clinical details were collected from the obstetric clinical records and neonatal clinical records. Result: We found placental vascular processes as most frequent (73.33%) pathological lesion in our study. Most common inflammatory lesion in our study was chorioamnionitis (15%). Also among placentae of stillbirths, placental vascular lesions were predominant finding present in 85.7% of placentae of stillbirths. Other lesions found in placentae of stillbirths were Immune inflammatory lesions, maternal floor infarction and placenta accreta. Out of total placentae with vasculopathy, 19.2% cases developed neonatal sepsis, in chorioamnionitis group 66.6% live births were having sepsis. In present study we observed higher frequency of resuscitation in babies with placentae having chorioamnionitis. Discussion: This study revealed that the placental pathological findings appear to be correlated with perinatal mortality and early neonatal morbidity. So, examination of the preterm placentae gains importance in early determination of morbidity in infants. Placental findings can help neonatologist in routine diagnosis and management.