Quantitative study of placental villi in trisomy by analytical morphometry.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the relationship between morphologic features of placental villi and the occurrence of trisomy.

STUDY

DESIGN

We selected 9 placentas with genetically diagnosed trisomy 21 and 6 normal placentas of matched gestational age. The 150 selected villi underwent a morphometric study using the Shape Analytical Morphometry system, availing itself of an ordinary section to study dimensions and of a specific section to study the shape. The analytic morphometric procedure for shape analysis consisted of 3 steps: upper degree polynomial equations, Fourier analysis and parabolic fitting.

RESULTS

Trisomic villi showed bigger size and a more asymmetric and irregular shape than did normal villi.

CONCLUSION

We believe that this method can provide valuable information and that further studies are needed to analyze more cohorts of pathologic villi, thus providing a complete pattern of morphologic aberrations related to each placental disease.