Chronic villitis of unknown aetiology in recurrent intrauterine fetal growth retardation.

Although recurrent chronic villitis of unknown aetiology (CVUA) has been documented in a few instances, placental lesions in recurrent intrauterine growth retardation have not, to the best of our knowledge, been reported. In the present study ten cases of recurrent intrauterine growth retardation have been described; a high incidence of severe CVUA was found in both first and successive pregnancies. If, as has been proposed, CVUA is due to a maternal immune response to placental antigens, subsequent pregnancies with the same father might be similarly affected.