Morphometric study of the placental vessels and its correlation with umbilical artery Doppler flow.

Objective: To determine the changes in the vessel-wall thickness and the radius of the lumen in tertiary-stem villi of the placenta with advancing gestational duration and their relationship to umbilical artery Doppler flow studies.

Methods: Placentas from 63 miscarriages and preterm and term deliveries (between 19 and 40 weeks) were used for morphometric study of the tertiary-stem villi vessels. Each woman had undergone Doppler flow study of the umbilical artery. The resistance index (RI) was determined from the Doppler flow velocity waveform. Placental paraffin sections of 4-micron thickness were stained with hematoxylin and eosin and with periodic acid-Schiff reagents. The tertiary-stem villi and their vessels were examined microscopically and assessed morphometrically using a personal computer with math co-processor and a touch-sensitive screen overlying a video monitor. The monitor received microscopic images from a video camera that was mounted on a microscope. We determined vessel-wall thickness by tracing the outer and inner circumferences of digitized vessel-wall images.

Results: Wall thickness, but not lumen size, of the tertiary-stem villi vessels decreased significantly overall at a rate of 0.63micron/week (P < .001). The rate of decrease was 0.64micron/week (P < .001) during the second trimester and 0.50micron/week (P < .001) during the third trimester. There was a significant correlation between the decrease in thickness and in RI (r = 0.83 [P < .001], r = 0.78 [P < .001] in the second and third trimesters, respectively). Resistance indices were all within normal limits.

Conclusions: Placental tertiary-stem villi vessel-wall thickness decreases with advancing gestational age. There is a correlation between the changes in RI of the umbilical artery Doppler flow and the changes in mean wall thickness of the placental vessels.