Histopathologic Findings in Placentas from COVID-19 Positive Mothers – A Hospital Experience

Adaeze Mba 1, Aloy Okechukwu Ugwu 2 * , Christian C Makwe 2, Adetola Olubunmi Daramola 3
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1 Department of Anatomic and Molecular Pathology, Lagos University, Teaching Hospital, Lagos, Nigeria
2 Department of Obstetrics and gynaecology, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Lagos, Nigeria
3 Department of Anatomic and Molecular Pathology, Lagos University, Teaching Hospital, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Nigeria
* Corresponding Author
J CLIN MED KAZ, Volume 22, Issue 3, pp. 88-92. https://doi.org/10.23950/jcmk/16543
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Author Contributions: Conceptualization, C. C. M.; methodology, C. C. M.; validation – not applicable; formal analysis, C. C. M., A. O. U., A. M., A. O. D.; investigation, C. C. M., A. O. U., A. M., A. O. D.; resources – not applicable; data curation, C. C. M., A. O. U., A. M., A. O. D.; writing – original draft preparation, A. O. U.; writing – review and editing, C. C. M., A. O. U., A. M., A. O. D.; visualization, A. O. U.; supervision – not applicable; project administration – not applicable; funding acquisition – not applicable. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

AI Declaration: No form of regenerative AI such as ChatGPT, COPILOT, DEEPSTEEK was used during the preparation of this manuscript.

Data availability statement: The authors are available and ready to supply the data upon any request through the corresponding author.

Informed consent: This was a descriptive retrospective study and did not contain any data with human participants performed by the authors and thus did not require informed consent.

ABSTRACT

Background: Coronaviruses, also known as COVID-19, are a group of highly infectious enveloped positive stranded RNA viruses that have been implicated to cause severe acute respiratory and systemic thrombotic syndrome. It is a multi-systemic disease whose manifestation can be seen in several organ systems. This study therefore aims to identify the specific histopathologic alterations in placenta tissue of COVID-19 pregnant women.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study done at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, (LUTH). This study was carried out from April 2020 to October 2020 and from December 2020 to April 2021 during the pandemic. The information retrieved included sociodemographic data, medical and surgical history, pregnancy and delivery details, results of COVID-19 tests, and report of placental evaluation/examination. The data were entered and analyzed using Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Descriptive statistics were employed to report the findings.
Results: Histopathology and gross examination of placentas from these pregnant women infected with COVID-19 reveals increased syncytial Knots in 80% of our cohort, calcification 80%, infarction 90%, fibrin deposition 80%, retroplacental haemorrhage 40%, hyalinization of vessels 10%, thrombosis 20%, inflammation 40%, vascular malformation in 10% hyalinization in 60% of cases thereby suggesting that COVID-19 may have significant impact on human placental structure and function. Out of 15 deliveries, one each was preterm, preeclampsia, and abruptio which were excluded from the study, and three patients declined to participate in the study.
Keywords: COVID-19, placenta histology, pregnancy, Nigeria.

CITATION

Mba A, Ugwu AO, Makwe CC, Daramola AO. Histopathologic Findings in Placentas from COVID-19 Positive Mothers – A Hospital Experience. J CLIN MED KAZ. 2025;22(3):88-92. https://doi.org/10.23950/jcmk/16543

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