Background: Placenta forms a functional unit between the mother and the fetus and any pathological event that concerns the mother or the fetus will influence the normal function of the placenta. Anemia is commonest hematological disorder that occurs in pregnancy and the commonest cause of anemia during pregnancy is iron deficiency which may be due to nutritional deficiency or increased demand of oxygen in pregnancy. Anemia leading to hypoxia cause changes in structure of placenta. It also exerts profound changes on the maternal circulatory system and has serious effects both on mother and fetus⁷ and it is responsible for 20-40% of maternal deaths directly or indirectly.

Objective: To analyze the spectrum of histopathological changes in placenta in normal and anemic cases.

Material and Methods: A total of 90 placentae were collected soon after deliveries from normal and caesarean sections of which, 45 placentae were from mothers with anemia and 45 placentae were from normal term mothers who formed the control group. Placental tissue was taken for histopathological processing viz: Fixation, Dehydration, Clearing, Embedding and Sectioning and staining was done after that Immunostaining for paraffin sections was done.

Results: The area of synctical knot formation, cytotrophoblastic cellular proliferation, fibrinoid necrosis was found higher among the cases as compared to controls which is statistically significant. Hyalinised area was the most common finding among cases while Stromal fibrosis was least finding.

Conclusion: Anaemia in pregnancy alters the placental morphology and adequate treatment of anaemia may therefore be critical to normal placental function.

Keywords: Anemia, Fibrinoid necrosis, Placenta, Synctical knot formation.

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Dilip Sudele

Address: Department of Anatomy, Zydus Medical College, Dahod, Gujarat, India