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A small young study found signs of damage to the placenta in pregnant women with COVID-19 , but it ’s far too early to say whether this damage actually affects birth outcomes . Most women with the novel coronavirus who had these abnormalities return birth to healthy babies at - term .
The survey researchers examined placenta from 16 fraught women who test positive for COVID-19 , and found that theplacentascontained blood coagulum and usher signs of abnormal blood flow between female parent and baby .
However , the discipline does not prove that COVID-19 was behind these abnormalities with the placenta . Indeed , nearly half of significant women without COVID-19 who had their placenta examined for other rationality also show such foretoken of injury .
In gain , given that most of these women had normalpregnanciesand delivered on the face of it healthy babies at full - term , it ’s unclear these placental changes intend much . The researchers take note that even partly damaged placenta can often supply baby with sufficient nutrients .
" placenta get built with an enormous amount of redundancy , " study co - source Dr. Emily Miller , an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago , said in a statement . " Even with only half of it working , babies are often completely fine . "
Still , Miller added " there ’s a risk that some pregnancy could be compromise . " The findings suggest the need to closely monitorpregnant women with COVID-19 , the authors concluded .
Such monitoring might let in ultrasound to measure if the baby is rise at a typical charge per unit , and so called non - stress tests that check how well the placenta is delivering oxygen , the investigator allege .
However , expert not involved with the field of study expressed concern that many other disease in pregnancy could lead to similar harm to the placenta , and so it ’s too soon to have intercourse if these changes were triggered by COVID-19 .
Related:5 Reasons Why Placentas Are Amazing
Signs of injury
The placenta is a full of life structure that supplies oxygen and nutrients to the sister in utero , and removes waste products from the child ’s blood , according toThe Mayo Clinic . Some viral infections in gestation , such as cytomegalovirus andZika virus , are have sex to be linked with abnormality in the placenta , but whether this occurs withcoronavirusesis unknown . ( These diseases can also lead to problem after giving birth , such as the microcephaly , or repress head volume , due to Zika computer virus . )
The new study , release May 22 inAmerican Journal of Clinical Pathology , is one of the largest to essay placentas in fraught women with COVID-19 . Among the 16 women in the study , 15 fork over in the thirdtrimester , and one experienced a abortion in the second trimester . The researchers do n’t know whether the miscarriage was related to the woman ’s COVID-19 infection .
The researcher compare the placenta of these 16 significant women with COVID-19 with those of 17,479 women without COVID-19 who required a placental examination , often because they had gestation - related condition , such as preterm birth orpreeclampsia . But within this group of " controller " were 125 women who had melanoma . The writer choose to focus on this grouping in exceptional because they require placental examination after birth to check for Crab spread ; but melanoma itself is not think to affect pregnancy outcomes .
About 80 % of the women with COVID-19 showed a eccentric of placental accidental injury make love as " maternal vascular malperfusion , " which is a foretoken of deficient blood rate of flow between female parent and babe due to unnatural blood vas . In dividing line , 27 % of woman with melanoma and 44 % of all control ( women without COVID-19 with and without melanoma ) showed this abnormality .
" Our findings indicate a flock of the stemma stream was blocked off , and many of the placentas were smaller than they should have been , " Miller tell .
In char with COVID-19 , the researchers also discover " intervillous thrombus , " or origin clots in the placenta . This finding fits with enquiry showing that some patients withCOVID-19 experience coagulation problems , the authors aver .
Skepticism
However , Dr. Kristina Adams Waldorf , a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Washington School of Medicine , did not find the results convincing .
" I ’m interested that the scientists that wrote this ms have taken a leap from seeing some placental pathology to the conclusion that the virus does in fact cause trauma , " Adams Waldorf told Live Science . She mark that there are " many many other condition that can cause a like profile of placental pathology . " This makes it hard to tease out the effect of COVID-19 from othercommon shape during maternity , such as high blood pressure , obesity and diabetes , she said .
Much larger subject area that take into account statement these common pregnancy term are needed to get a just video of the specific effects of COVID-19 in maternity , she said .
Other subject field in research laboratory dishes can calculate at the effect of the computer virus on placental prison cell . Adams Waldorf is currently conducting lab studies to examine the placenta ’s antiviral immune reaction to the virus .
In addition , most of the woman in the current study contracted COVID-19 late in pregnancy , in the third trimester , but niggling is known about the effects of the computer virus ahead of time in pregnancy .
The new field also found that , among the 15 live births to fair sex with COVID-19 , none of the babies tested positive for the disease .
One recent study propose that three babe inChinamay have contracted the raw coronavirus in the uterus , in what ’s known as vertical transmission , but these finding were inconclusive , Live Science previously report . Overall , evidence so far suggests that erect transmission is " at most , very rarified , " the author of the new study wrote .
in the beginning published onLive Science .
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