The placenta is a very necessary temporary organ that appears during pregnancy. It begins to form after the implantation of a fertilized egg into the uterus, and normally this process is completed by 16 weeks of pregnancy. During pregnancy, the placenta provides the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the fetus. Determination of the thickness of the placenta based on the results of ultrasound examination gives an idea of how well it copes with its functions.
Placenta Hyperplasia - Causes
The normal size of the placenta is described in many manuals on obstetrics. Consider the normal size of the placenta for weeks. So, for example, the thickness of the placenta at 21, 22 and 23 weeks of gestation corresponds to 21, 22 and 23 mm. At 31 weeks of gestation, the thickness of the placenta becomes 31 mm, at 32 and 33 weeks, 32 and 33 mm, respectively. The growth of the placenta occurs before the 37th week of pregnancy and reaches 33.75 mm, after which its growth stops, and by the end of pregnancy, there is some thinning of it to 33.25 mm. Thickening of the placenta or its hyperplasia can be a symptom of various pathologies.
The reasons for hyperplasia of the placenta include:
- diabetes mellitus in a pregnant woman;
- Rhesus-conflict (if the pregnant woman has a negative Rh blood, and the fetus has a positive one);
- acute viral diseases (acute respiratory viral infection, influenza);
- chronically occurring infections, sexually transmitted infections (mycoplasma, ureaplasma, chlamydia, toxoplasma, gonorrhea, syphilis);
- severe anemia, with a decrease in hemoglobin levels of less than 80 g / l.
The diagnosis of placental hyperplasia with the expansion (intervorsing space) of the MVP is not to be feared. Expansion of MVP occurs compensatory - in response to thickening of the placenta.
Hyperplasia of the placenta - treatment
If a woman has an enlarged placenta diagnosed during ultrasound, she needs to repeat ultrasound in a week, and also perform a dopplerometry ( doppler for pregnant women - a study of blood flow in the umbilical cord) and cardiotocography (determining the number and quality of cardiac strokes in the fetus). These studies are necessary to determine the condition of the fetus and timely diagnosis of the delay in its intrauterine development.
With moderate placental hyperplasia and no pathology on the part of the fetus, treatment may not be necessary. If the additional study confirms the delay in fetal development of the fetus together with placental hyperplasia, the woman must be hospitalized for treatment.
It is advisable to use drugs that improve microcirculation in the placenta (pentoxifylline, trental), drugs that dilute blood (curantil, cardiomagnet). It is important to use drugs that improve the oxygenation of the placenta and, accordingly, the fetus (actovegin). A good therapeutic effect is having an essential. The use of essential phospholipids as a building material for cells prevents their destruction. The effectiveness of treatment will increase if added to the treatment of vitamin E and folic acid.
Hyperplasia of the placenta - consequences
An increase in the thickness of the placenta leads to a condition called fetoplacental insufficiency,
So, we considered possible causes, methods of diagnosis and treatment of placental hyperplasia. This pathology of pregnancy is well amenable to drug correction. The main task of a pregnant woman is timely registration in a women's consultation, as well as the implementation of all the doctor's recommendations for treatment and diagnosis.