Fetal growth retardation and the maternal arterial supply of the human placenta in the absence of sustained hypertension.

In five patients with fetal growth retardation in pregnancies with no or only a moderate and transient rise in blood pressure, vascular lesions in the placental bed spiral arteries were found. These lesions are characterized by less well developed physiological morphological changes, by extensive intimal thickening, by fibrinoid degeneration of the media and by acute atherosis. the recurrent fetal growth retardation in these pregnancies may be the first clinical manifestation of underlying reno-vascular disease.