Miyoshi YAMASAKI, Hideaki SHOUNO, Masayuki OGA, Kenichirou YATUKI, Kyouko SHIMOMURA, Yuji ITO, Hajime SUGIMORI

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Saga Medical School

キーワード : Placental echolucent area, Placetal function, Second trimester, Tissue characterization

We performed an ultrasonic examination of a woman, whose fetus died in approximately the 25th week of gestation. We found that the intervillous space of the placenta was contained by many giant echolucent areas. We then used ultrasonic tomography to examine the echolucent areas and to characterize the surrounding tissue. The echolucent areas were found to represent a hematoma attributable to the failure of the coiled artery (a branch of the uterine artery) which plays a role in the circulation in the intervillous space.