Histopathological Lesions of Placenta in Mild and Severe Pre-Eclampsia in a Population of Egyptian Women

Abstract

Background: Pre-eclampsia (PE) results in adverse maternal and foetal outcomes in our setting. The pathophysiology is strongly linked to placental development. We aimed to study placental lesions associated with two stages of PE mild (MPE) and severe (SPE) in a population of Egyptian women. Materials and methods: We conducted a cross sectional, analytical study in Zagazig University Hospital. The experimental period of the current study started from March 2019 till completing the sample size. The study included 30 participants; 20 pre-eclamptic women and 10 women with clinically-normal pregnancy as control group. Results: placental sections of MPE revealed diverse placental affection including blood vessel covered by thick fibrinoid, hemorrhage in widened intervillous space, incidence of syncytial knots with thickness of vasculo-syncytial membrane and hyalinization of fetal capillaries. However, placental sections of SPE revealed chorionic plate with congested blood vessels and different types of distorted and atrophied villi enclosing highly widened intervillous space, increased thickness and incidence of syncytial knots and villi with disrupted fetal capillaries and calcification at a part of the maternal surface as compared to the placental histology of normal women. Conclusion: PE-associated placental lesions in our study are multiple and diverse especially in its severe stage, and these may be develop due to maternal vascular malperfusion.