Fig. 17.

This cerebral infarct has chronic histologic features, associated with thrombi in the fetal circulation in the placenta, possibly the result of embolism to the middle cerebral artery. The central necrosis, focal calcification, and marked astrocytic proliferation indicate at least several days' duration. The newborn had bradycardia during labor and severe neonatal encephalopathy but lived only 2.5 hours after birth; the placenta showed extensive chronic FTV with many clusters of avascular hyalinized villi. Both the FTV and the cerebral infarct occurred prenatally, long before the delivery (hematoxylin-eosin, original magnification ×100).