Placental Malaria and Its Relationship with Neonatal and Placental Birthweight among Pregnant Women Attending Selected Hospitals in Katsina State

Abstract

Placental malaria has been recognized as a complication of malaria in pregnancy in areas of stable transmission. Women in zones of high malaria transmission are often asymptomatic, thus leading to chronic placental malaria (PM) with insidious consequences to both the mother and the unborn fetus. The present study was conducted to assess the relationship of placental malaria with placental and neonatal birthweight among pregnant women in Katsina State. A cross-sectional study involving 300 parturients was carried out using the biopsy pool method. Placental blocks were taken from the pericentric area of the maternal surface of the placenta, and the birth weights of the neonates and the placenta were recorded. The samples were fixed in 10% neutral-buffered formalin, and histopathological analysis was performed. Overall, 76% of the study participants were observed to harbour a high level of monocytes infiltrations with in the placental tissue, which shows a positive significant association with the presence of malaria parasitemia in placental blood (r =0.735) and parasitemia in peripheral blood (r = 0.385), followed by underweight babies (r = .372), and underweight placentas (r = .446). shows a weak association, while for normal weight babies (r = -.272) and normal placental weight (r = 0.277) a weak negative correlation was observed. However, all parameters measured show statistically significant associations (p = 0.000).  The effects of a high presence of malaria parasite embedded within the placentas were found to be independently correlated with the underweight babies and underweight placentas.