A morphometric and histological study of placental malaria shows significant changes to villous architecture in both Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax infection

Table 3 Correlation of villous architecture with clinical outcomes

Clinical parameter	Villous size/μm²	Vascularity (number of vessels/villus)	Number of villi/10 hpf	Villous perimeter (μm/villos)	Villous perimeter (total per 10 hpf)
Placental weight	0.995	0.547	0.975	0.761	0.208
Gestational Age at delivery	0.043*	0.364	0.247	0.968	0.310
Maternal anaemia Grade^a	0.656	0.354	0.0034**	0.525	0.214
Maternal haematocrit %^b	0.142	0.922	0.009**	0.760	0.346
Birthweight	0.833	0.567	0.441	0.454	0.179

^aMaternal anaemia graded by haematocrit at infection (0 = normal, 1 = 25-30%, 2 = <25%, see Methods).
^b% maternal haematocrit at infection.
Figures in bold are significant at *P<0.05 and **P<0.01.