CHANGES IN PLACENTAL WEIGHT-TO-BIRTH WEIGHT RATIO IN CASES OF FETAL CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE

Objective: Analysis of placental weight-to-birth weight ratio in healthy full-term newborns and in babies born with congenital heart disease. Materials and methods: A comparative analysis of newborns’ weight, placental weight and placental weight-to-birth weight ratio was conducted between the main group, which comprised 100 observations with prenatally diagnosed fetal CHD and the control group, which included 100 healthy newborns. Results: In the studied groups, there were no statistically significant differences in birth weight: 3412 (409) g (the 65th percentile) weighed newborns with CHD, and 3397 (429) g (the 64th percentile) weighed healthy newborns (p=0.8). Placental weight was significantly lower in the group with CHD, compared with the control group – 460 (98) g (the 42th percentile) versus 513 (104) g (the 57th percentile) (p=0.003). Placental weight-to-birth weight ratio was 0.14 (the 25th percentile) versus 0.15 (the 50th percentile) (p<0.001), as well as there was lower frequency of observations with placental weight-to-birth weight ratio less than the 10th percentile – 31% and 9% (p<0.001), respectively. Conclusion: The observations showed that there was a disproportionate reduction in placental weight in relation to the newborn’s weight in the group with fetal CHD compared with the control group of healthy children, that may be a pathogenetic basis for a high incidence of post-hypoxic complications in this cohort of patients. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.