ABSTRACT
Background: Several studies have reported that mothers with pregnancy induced hypertension or those suffering from hypertensive disorders have abnormalities in histological features of the placenta. The fetus connection with the mother is through chorionic villi. Besides several other histological features changes in the chorionic villi have also been reported. This lead to the reduced supply of the necessary nutritional elements for the fetus
The aim of the Study: The principal objective of this study was to evaluate morphometric changes in the placenta of expecting mothers have hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and women without any symptoms of hypertension. As the placenta is capillary-rich region and any physiological change can adversely affect the fetal health
Patients and Methods: In this study, a total of 84 expecting mothers were recruited. Among these 42 have hypertensive symptoms before pregnancy whereas the other 42 have their blood pressure in normal ranges. Among the 42 hypertensive women, only 13 met the study inclusion criteria,i.e., blood pressure in the range of 140/90 mmHg in the 30th week of the pregnancy. The quantitative morphometric parameters included shape and size of the placenta, damage to the blood vessels mainly in the chorionic villi and an overall number of blood vessels
Results: A comparative evaluation of placenta from the hypertensive and normotensive expecting mothers showed that blood vessels area in the hypertensive mothers was significantly reduced when compared to normotensive mothers, same holds from the blood vessels in the perimeter areas. These findings have important implications as far as the fetal development among hypertensive mothers is concerned
Conclusions: Higher blood pressure associated changes in the placenta are manifested in the form of several histological and morphological changes mainly in the chorionic villi structures involved in fulfilling nutritional requirements of the fetus