Beniuk V., Grabovoy A., Botva N., Kovalyuk T., Fursa-Sovgira T., Chebotareva A., Nevmerzhytska N.
Department of obstetrics and gynecology N3, Department of Histology and Embryology, Bogomolets National Medical University, Ukraine
Toufik’s Medical Journal
Volume 1, Supplement 1, November 2021
Abstract from Biomedical Perspectives III
Introduction: COVID-19 in pregnant women is a threat not only to the woman, but also to the fetus. In this aspect, special attention is drawn to the state of the placenta, which provides a connection between the mothers’ – fetus organisms.
Aim: is to assess the morphology of the placentas after mild to moderate COVID-19 suffered by women in labor during the I-II trimesters of pregnancy.
Materials and methods: Histological examination was carried out on 51 placentas obtained after childbirth in women who had undergone mild to moderate COVID-19 during the I-II trimester of pregnancy, who gave birth to alive children. We also examined 7 placentas obtained after childbirth from healthy women (control).
Results: Placental morphology after COVID-19 in pregnant women shows significant variability. In 12 cases, the structure of the placenta practically did not differ from that observed in the control. In other cases, hypertrophy and fibrosis of the maternal vessels, which passed in the placenta septa, was found, from insignificant to expressive. It was often accompanied by fibrotic changes and thickening of the septa. There was a slight, and sometimes expressive, usually focal, inflammatory infiltration of septa. Histiocytes were predominant in their cellular composition. Chorionic microscopy was revealed an increase in the number and size of syncytial nodes of the trophoblast. The inflammatory infiltration of the trophoblast villi could not be visually unambiguously determined. Hyperplasia of the walls of the chorionic arteries was observed in about half of the placentas after COVID-19. In some cases, fibrin deposits could be observed between the villi. In 3 cases, thrombosis of individual vessels of the fetal part of the placenta was observed.
Conclusions: Placentas after a pregnant woman suffered from COVID-19 of mild to moderate severity often have pathological changes. Most often, the vessels of both the maternal and fetal parts of the placenta are affected, fibrous changes in the septa occur, and the nutrition of the fetus is disturbed.