TABLE 2.
Health workers trained, number of placentas processed and evaluated, and gross and histologic pathology findings in three separate research studies that constitute the foundation of perinatal pathology research at a Ugandan regional referral hospital.
| Research project Participants |
Project 1 n = 100 |
Project 2 n = 352 |
Project 3* n = 600 |
| Years carried out | 2016–2017 | 2017–2018 | 2019 – |
| Number of newly trained health workers | 4 | 2 | 6 |
| Health worker qualifications | Junior medical doctor (1) Nurse (2) Midwife (1) |
Junior medical doctor (1) Midwife (1) |
Nurse (2) Midwife (4) |
| Number of returning, previously trained health workers | – | 2 | 3 |
| Placentas evaluated, n (%) | |||
| Gross examination | 100 (100) | 352 (100) | 525 (87.5) |
| Histopathology | 100 (100) | 352 (200) | 118 (19.7) |
| Number of placental parenchymal histopathology slides per participant case, median (IQR) | 2 (2–3) | 2 (2–3) | 4 (4–4) |
| “Adequate” histopathology quality, n (%) | 100 (100) | 316 (89.8) | 87 (73.7) |
| Immunohistochemistry (IHC) performed, n (%) | 0 | 51 (14.5) | 0 |
| Placental weight in grams, median (IQR) | Mean 425 | 456 (382–529) | 443 (375–511) |
| Placentas < 10th percentile of expected weight for gestational age (n = 616) | 205 (33.3) | ||
| Histopathology findings | |||
| Acute chorioamnionitis (n = 561) | 184 (32.3) | ||
| Maternal vascular malperfusion (n = 453) | 115 (25.4) |
*Study still in progress. Not all data for all studies were available to be included.