Contemporary placentography: harm or benefit?

Currently, pediatricians, neonatologists of maternity hospitals often take part in perinatal consultations. One of the indications for early delivery may be chronic placental insufficiency diagnosed during an ultrasound examination.

Objective: to evaluate the effectiveness of the main method of diagnosis of placental insufficiency at the present time – ultrasound evaluation of the placenta.

Materials and methods. An analysis was made of 357 birth histories, exchange cards, protocols for screening ultrasound in the third trimester of pregnancy and conclusions of pathoanatomical investigation.

Results. To substantiate the need for prenatal diagnosis of chronic kidney disease, a comparison was made of the evaluation of newborn babies on the Apgar scale and the state of the placenta according to histological data. With compensated chronic placental insufficiency, there was no difference in Apgar scores at the first and fifth minutes, whereas in the subcompensated stage, Apgar score on the Apgar scale was significantly lower in the first and fifth minutes than in the control group. To identify possible in practical use of the objective parameters of diagnosis of chronic kidney disease, the thickness of the placenta was measured during the screening ultrasound in the third trimester of pregnancy, as well as the thickness of the placenta after its separation. Significant differences in the thickness of the placenta or in the screening ultrasound, or when measuring the placenta after separation in patients with and without chronic placental insufficiency was not detected. When assessing a violation of the rate of maturation of the placenta in the third trimester of pregnancy, no significant differences were found in the presence and absence of placental insufficiency. An analysis of the amniotic index was carried out to determine the amount of amniotic fluid in patients of the main and control groups, which revealed no significant differences between the groups.

Conclusions. The authors believe that the main indicators currently used for diagnosis of chronic placental insufficiency (thickness of the placenta, degree of maturity of the placenta, appearance of structural changes in the placenta, change in the amount of amniotic fluid) are uninformative and modern placenography does more harm than benefit. The only parameter determined during the screening study in the third trimester of pregnancy and having significant differences in the main and control groups is fetal hypotrophy.