L.S. FATKULLINA¹, I.S. RAGINOV², I.F. FATKULLIN¹, A.R. YUSUPOV¹, E.E. VOLKOVA¹, E.I. ZAINUTDINOVA¹

 ¹Kazan State Medical University, Kazan, Russia

²Republic Clinical Hospital, Kazan, Russia

Contact:

Fatkullina Larisa Sergeyevna – Cand. Sci. (Medicine), Associate Professor of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology named after Prof. V. S. Gruzdev

Address: 49 Butlerov St., 420012 Kazan, tel.: +7-953-405-67-47, e-mail: fatkullinalara@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-00030361-2785

 Objective: to investigate pathomorphological features of placentas in cases of fetal death between 22 and 36.6 weeks of gestation.

Materials and methods. A total of 270 cases of antenatal fetal death at late gestational ages (22–36.6 weeks) were analyzed in maternity hospitals in Kazan. Cases with intrapartum fetal death, multiple pregnancies, or congenital anomalies were excluded from the study.

Results. Chronic placental insufficiency (CPI) was found to be the leading cause of antenatal fetal death in late pregnancy, reaching 67% at 34–36.6 weeks. Inflammatory changes were most common in early pregnancy (47.2%) but decreased by 34–36.6 weeks (20%). Nuclear count in syncytial knots indicates the severity of chronic placental insufficiency and inflammatory changes in the placenta and can serve as a reliable marker for assessing the placenta condition at various stages of gestation.

Key words: premature birth, antenatal fetal death, placental insufficiency, inflammatory changes, stillbirth, morphology and histology of the placenta, syncytial knots.