Stillbirths due to placental COVID infection associated with chronic histiocytic intervillositis do not recur in subsequent pregnancies

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when the SARS-CoV-2 B1.617.2 (Delta) variant was dominant, infected pregnant women had a 4-fold increased risk of stillbirth compared with non-infected women (2.70% vs. 0.63%)1. The placenta in these stillbirths showed COVID placentitis, a combination of SARS-CoV-2 within the syncytiotrophoblast and a triad of histological features: chronic histiocytic intervillositis, trophoblast necrosis, and massive perivillous fibrin deposition. COVID placentitis only occurred in a minority of women who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in pregnancy (~1.5%)2.

Source: Journal of Infection - January 11, 2024 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Emily F. Cornish, Lotte E. van der Meeren, Marie-Louise P. van der Hoorn, Sam Schoenmakers, Alexandre J. Vivanti, Alexandra Benachi, Melissa Whitten, Stephanie Hignett, Thomas McDonnell, David J. Williams Tags: Letter to the Editor Source Type: research