ABSTRACT
Objective: Post-mortem examination of a baby following
spontaneous or missed miscarriage in the second trimester or
intrauterine death to provide a complete or partial explanation of the
pregnancy loss.
Method: A total of 100 cases of intrauterine deaths were
consecutively collected from January 2010-May 2019 for etiological
diagnosis according to the standard protocol and involved external
examination, dysmorphological examination, internal examination and full
body antero-posterior and lateral radiographs. Histopathology of
placenta was done. Cases were also subjected to genetic testing such as
FISH/microarray. A clinical correlation was done by a
Obstetrician-geneticist to reach an etiological diagnosis.
Results: Two third of cases were referred after intrauterine
death post 30 weeks of gestation. 24/100 cases were with fetal
anomalies. Genetic causes present in 12% cases. 65.5% cases were
associated with the pathology of the placenta. 30% cases were with cord
lesions. The results were inconclusive in 14% of the cases.
Conclusions : In this study we looked for establishing
etiological diagnosis and tried to see contribution of each test in
finding the cause. This will help the obstetrician in counselling
parents for the utility of post-mortem excamination and thus better able
to guide for future recurrence risk and management.