RESUMO
To determine the frequency of placental infarcts and its effect on fetal outcome in hypertensive primigravida mothers. This study was conducted at Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar from 1[st] January 2011 to 30[th] September 2011. The sample size was 130 primigravida mothers. This study was cross sectional in which non probability consecutive sampling technique was adopted. The data was collected on predesigned proforma and was analyzed using SPSS version 17. This study included 130 primigravida mothers in age range from 19-35 years with mean age of 27.27+4.04 years. Placental infarcts were seen in 31% [n=40] patients. Sixty percent [n=24] patients had focal placental infarcts while 40% [n=16] had multifocal placental infarcts. Among fetuses whose placenta showed no infarction, 90% fetuses were live born and 10% were still-born while those fetuses whose placenta showed infarction 70% fetuses were alive and 30% fetuses were still-born. The incidence of adverse perinatal outcomes including intrauterine growth restriction and still birth is higher in hypertensive primigravida mothers with placental infarcts than in hypertensive primigravida mothers with no infarcts