INTRODUCTION: Preeclampsia is responsible for high maternal mortality in Brazil and worldwide. Its etiology has not been fully elucidated. Placental changes in preeclampsia include: infarcts, increase in syncytial knots, villous hypotrophy, thickening of trophoblastic basement membrane and fibrin deposition. OBJECTIVE: To analyze quantitatively images of perivillous fibrinoid material present in placentas from pregnancies with and without preeclampsia. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A case-control study was carried out at the Anatomical Pathological Service of Professor Alberto Antunes University Hospital. It was performed the histomorphometric analysis of 840 images comprising 14 placenta samples from pregnancies with preeclampsia (cases) and 14 placenta samples from pregnancies without preeclampsia (controls). RESULTS: In the preeclampsia group the mean area of fibrinoid material was 168.46 pixels and in the group without preeclampsia it was 89.63 pixels. The nuclei total area was smaller in preeclampsia (89.51 pixels) in comparison with the control group (113.34 pixels). CONCLUSION: In placentas from preeclampsia pregnancies the fibrinoid material area is larger (1.8x) compared to normal pregnancies. Nuclei and cytoplasm areas were larger in the control group. There was no statistical difference regarding the stromal area. There was also a reduction in villous space in preeclampsia, which is consistent with villous hypotrophy.
Preeclampsia; Placenta; Fibrin
