Placental Tissue Destruction and Insufficiency From COVID-19 Causes Stillbirth and Neonatal Death From Hypoxic-Ischemic InjuryLinköping University, Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Division of Children's and Women's Health. Linköping University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Region Östergötland, Center of Paediatrics and Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics in Linköping.
Hosp Civils Lyon, France; SOFFOET Soc Francaise Fooetopathol, France.
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SOFFOET Soc Francaise Fooetopathol, France; Univ Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France.
Catholic Univ Louvain, Belgium.
Ghent Univ Hosp, Belgium.
Parc Tauli Hosp Univ, Spain; Univ Autonoma Barcelona, Spain.
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Hosp Univ Vall dHebron, Spain; Univ Autonoma Barcelona, Spain.
Doncaster & Bassetlaw NHS Teaching Hosp, England.
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Natl Inst Perinatol, Mexico.
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Natl Inst Perinatol Isidro Espinosa de los Reyes, Mexico.
Lund Univ, Sweden.
Antwerp Univ Hosp, Belgium.
Birmingham Womens Hosp, England.
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Yale Univ, CT USA.
Hosp Clin Barcelona, Spain; Univ Barcelona, Spain; August Pi & Sunyer Biomed Res Inst IDIBAPS, Spain.
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Uppsala Univ, Sweden.
Burrell Coll Osteopath Med, NM USA.
Lab Ferdinando Costa, Brazil.
Karolinska Inst, Sweden; Karolinska Univ Hosp, Sweden.
Aalborg Univ Hosp, Denmark.
Harvard Med Sch, MA 02115 USA.
Univ Miami, FL 33136 USA.
Karolinska Inst, Sweden; Karolinska Univ Hosp, Sweden.
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St Louis Univ, MO 63104 USA.
CHRISTUS Hosp St Elizabeth, TX USA.
NYU, NY USA; NYU, NY USA.
Univ Hosp Leuven, Belgium; Natl Inst Perinatol, Mexico.
Leiden Univ Med Ctr, Netherlands; Univ Med Ctr Utrecht, Netherlands.
Ghent Univ Hosp, Belgium.
Erasmus MC Univ Med Ctr Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Harvard Med Sch, MA 02115 USA.
Lund Univ, Sweden; Skane Univ Hosp, Sweden; Skane Univ Hosp, Sweden.
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2022 (English)In: Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, ISSN 0003-9985, E-ISSN 1543-2165, Vol. 146, no 6, p. 660-676Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Context.-Perinatal death is an increasingly important problem as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues, but the mechanism of death has been unclear. Objective.-To evaluate the role of the placenta in causing stillbirth and neonatal death following maternal infection with COVID-19 and confirmed placental positivity for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Design.-Case-based retrospective clinicopathologic analysis by a multinational group of 44 perinatal specialists from 12 countries of placental and autopsy pathology findings from 64 stillborns and 4 neonatal deaths having placentas testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 following delivery to mothers with COVID-19. Results.-Of the 3 findings constituting SARS-CoV-2 placentitis, all 68 placentas had increased fibrin deposition and villous trophoblast necrosis and 66 had chronic histiocytic intervillositis. Sixty-three placentas had massive perivillous fibrin deposition. Severe destructive placental disease from SARS-CoV-2 placentitis averaged 77.7% tissue involvement. Other findings included multiple intervillous thrombi (37%; 25 of 68) and chronic villitis (32%; 22 of 68). The majority (19; 63%) of the 30 autopsies revealed no significant fetal abnormalities except for intrauterine hypoxia and asphyxia. Among all 68 cases, SARS-CoV-2 was detected from a body specimen in 16 of 28 cases tested, most frequently from nasopharyngeal swabs. Four autopsied stillborns had SARS-CoV-2 identified in internal organs. Conclusions.-The pathology abnormalities composing SARS-CoV-2 placentitis cause widespread and severe placental destruction resulting in placental malperfusion and insufficiency. In these cases, intrauterine and perinatal death likely results directly from placental insufficiency and fetal hypoxic-ischemic injury. There was no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 involvement of the fetus had a role in causing these deaths.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
COLL AMER PATHOLOGISTS , 2022. Vol. 146, no 6, p. 660-676
National Category
Cancer and Oncology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-186156DOI: 10.5858/arpa.2022-0029-SAISI: 000805944600002PubMedID: 35142798OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-186156DiVA, id: diva2:1674783
Note
Funding Agencies|Slovak Research and Development Agency grant [PP-COVID-20-051]; Belgian Fund for Scientific Research [40002773]; Fetus for Life charity
2022-06-222022-06-222022-06-22