Placental Development in Ongoing Pregnancy and Miscarriage

Abstract

In this thesis three-dimensional ultrasound, three-dimensional power Doppler ultrasound, virtual reality and histologic examination of the chorionic villous vascularization were used to investigate early placental development in normal ongoing pregnancy as well as miscarriage. The research objectives were: 1. To establish the reproducibility of trophoblast volume measurements using 3D ultrasound and to investigate a possible difference in trophoblast volume and growth between ongoing pregnancies and pregnancies ending in a miscarriage (chapter 2). 2. To establish the reproducibility of a new placental bed volumetric measurement using 3D power Doppler and virtual reality and to investigate a possible difference in placental bed vascular volume between spontaneously conceived pregnancies and pregnancies brought about by artificial reproductive technology (chapter 3). 3. To study the correlation between chorionic villous vascularization, ultrasound findings and corresponding chromosomal analyses in early miscarriage specimens from a cohort of recurrent pregnancy loss patients (chapter 4). 4. To investigate the relationship between the severity of Chronic Histiocytic InterVillositis (CHIV) and the outcome of pregnancy, and to compare the immune response between CHIV patients and controls to explore an immunological origin of CHIV (chapter 5).