3-dimensional colour power angiography for staging human placental development

Maldevelopment of placental villous trees and their blood vessels results in impaired fetal growth, which can greatly compromise fetal, neonatal, childhood, and adulthood health. There are no means of directly assessing such maldevelopment. We have applied a new technique of imaging (colour power angiography [CPA]) with 3-dimensional reconstruction to assess directly villous development in human pregnancy in vivo in 20 uncomplicated pregnancies from 13 to 38 weeks' gestation. The chronology of villous trees was much the same in 3-dimensional CPA, scanning electron micrography, and classical histology from controls matched by age. This approach provides a unique opportunity to examine normal placental development directly, and should provide the bases for real-time investigation of placental pathology and a robust method for diagnosis and surveillance during pregnancy.