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Modeling Encephalopathy of Prematurity Using Prenatal Hypoxia-ischemia with Intra-amniotic Lipopolysaccharide in Rats
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Published on: November 20, 2015

Gastroschisis, destructive brain lesions, and placental infarction in the second trimester suggest a vascular

Rebecca D Folkerth1, Donald M Habbe, Theonia K Boyd

  • 11  Department of Pathology (Neuropathology), Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

Pediatric and Developmental Pathology : the Official Journal of the Society for Pediatric Pathology and the Paediatric Pathology Society
|July 31, 2013
PubMed

The cause and pathogenesis of gastroschisis are uncertain. We report the autopsy and placental pathology of a stillbirth at 20 gestational weeks, in which gastroschisis was accompanied by destructive lesions in the cerebral cortex and brainstem, as well as cardiac calcification, consistent with ischemic injury during the 2nd trimester. An important potential underlying mechanism explaining the fetal abnormalities is the presence of infarcts in the placenta, indicative at this gestational age of maternal vascular underperfusion. The association of gastroschisis with ischemic lesions in the brain, heart, and placenta in this case supports the concept that gastroschisis, at least in some instances, may result from vascular event(s) causing disruption of the fetal abdominal wall and resulting in the extrusion of the abdominal organs, as well as hypoxic-ischemic brain and cardiac injury.

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