Correlations of placental vascular anatomy and clinical outcomes in 69 monochorionic twin pregnancies

Abstract

Monochorionic monozygotic twins frequently suffer complications from the presence of vascular anastomoses in their monochorionic placentas. Also, sharing of perfusion zones may be unequal, leading to marked growth discordance. This paper analyzes four measures of perinatal outcome (gestational age at delivery, perinatal mortality, birth weight discordance, and presence/absence of hydramnios) according to the vascular patterns of the monochorionic placentas. The worst clinical outcomes were associated with arteriovenous anastomoses in the absence of arterio-arterial and veno-venous anastomoses. The vascular patterns of monochorionic placentas cause significant fetal environmental differences within pairs of monochorionic monozygotic twins. These differences may cause life-long discordance for several phenotypic traits that are not genetically based, and which cause monochorionic monozygotic twins to be "non-identical."