Correlations of morphometric placental microvessels parameters with birth weight.

Abstract

Introduction: Birth weight (BWT) is greatly affected by placental insufficiency and the microvessels configurations. Aims of this study were to evaluate various parameters: villous density (VD), microvessel density (MVD), microvessels per villus (MVPV), mean microvessel caliber (VC), total microvessels boundary density (TVBD), maximum possible total length of microvessels (MP-TVL) and maximum possible total surface area of microvessels (MP-TVSA) in terminal villi of placenta. All the parameters including placental weight (PWT) were correlated with BWT; and MVD and VC of placenta were compared with the human tissues from various lesions. Materials and methods:Sixty human placentas of uncomplicated term pregnancies (≥37weeks) managed at this tertiary care institute were included. Formalin fixed paraffin embedded sections of placental tissues were used for computer assisted digital image morphometry. H&E stained sections were used to determine VD and CD34 immuno-stained sections were used for evaluation of vascular parameters in terminal villi. Results: The mean VD was 204 mm-2, the mean MVD was 1314 mm-2, the mean MVPV was 6.6, the mean MVC was 10.15 µm, the mean TVBD was 40.64 mm-1, the mean MP-TVL was 626 km and the mean MP-TVSA was 19.23 m2. The BWT showed significant (p<0.05) positive correlations with PWT (r=0.690), VD (r=0.328), MVD (r=0.408), TVBD (r=0.280), MP-TVL (r=0.723) and MP-TVSA (r=0.723); whereas did not show significant correlations with MVPV (r=0.185, p=0.157) and VC (r=-0.249, p=0.054). MVD in placentas showed strong negative correlation with VC (r=-0.712). MVD in placentas were several times (~ 6.3 times) higher than human tissues; though mean caliber of microvessels in placenta was comparable. Conclusion:PWT, VD, MVD and TVBD in placenta showed significant positive correlations with BWT. Estimated MP-TVL and MP-TSA showed the best correlations with BWT. Placental MVD showed strong negative correlation with VC. Total length of microvessels in the placenta was comparable to that estimated for the fetus. Keywords: Microvessels in

Stereological Analysis of Adolescent Placentas and Anthropometric Characteristics of Newborns

“…Several morphometric studies have demonstrated significant and positive correlation between weight of the placenta with weight of newborns and length of gestation (7,(15)(16)(17)(18).…”