Placental insights into neurodevelopmental and other childhood diseases.

Deficient information regarding placental pathology has compromised epidemiological investigations of cerebral palsy, mental retardation, and other diseases. This article reviews light microscopic signs of low placental blood flow, fetal nucleated red blood cells, villitis (villous inflammatory lesions), chorangiosis (placental villous capillary hypervascularity), meconium staining, and chorioamnionitis. These findings can be used with data of birth weight, head circumference, and length to document the duration of fetal disease. The article includes pathophysiological considerations; for example, chorioamnionitis and fetal meconium discharge may cause autacoids to produce fetal hypoperfusion of the fetal brain and other vital organs.