About Carolyn M. Salafia MD MS, Perinatal Pathologist

Carolyn M. Salafia, MD MS has an internationally recognized knowledge base, and specific research history relevant to fetoplacental physiology and pathology. Her broad focus is on pathologies of the placenta, their maternal clinical correlates, and relation to perinatal outcomes.

In her studies of gross placental dimensions, Dr Carolyn Salafia has used national birth cohorts, including over 33,000 pregnancies delivered in the California Child Health Determinants Study and the National Collaborative Perinatal Project; note that comparable results were observed in both data sets:

1. After adjusting for placental weight, chorionic plate area and thickness have persistent direct effects on birth weight.
2. The fetoplacental weight ratio (the ratio of the grams of birth weight supported by each gram of placental weight) varies by pattern of placental growth.
3. The relative eccentricity of the umbilical cord insertion on the chorionic plate (a measure of asymmetry or non-uniformity of placental expansion about the umbilical cord) affects birth weight after adjustment for placental weight.
4. The ratio of birth weight to birth length (ponderal index) depends on the lateral expansion of the chorionic plate area rather than the arborization of the nutrient exchange surface, reflected in disk thickness.

These observations consistently demonstrate that placental structural organization (as reflected in gross placental dimensions) affects its efficiency in regards to promoting fetal growth.

Her research group contributed to the validation of the utility of conceptualizing placental features in terms of their underlying pathophysiology type, developing evidence establishing the types, demonstrating that these pathologies can be discriminated and that they have explanatory meaning with respect to important fetal outcomes. Her previous investigations have focused on the association of types of histopathologic lesions (acute and chronic inflammation, maternal utero-placental vascular and placental-fetal vascular) on birth weight:

1) Different fetal growth patterns are associated with different types of placental pathology.
2) The pathologies underlying preterm LBW are identical to those underlying term growth restriction.
3) Placental pathology can differentiate growth restricted from constitutionally small infants.
4) Relationships of placental pathology to fetal growth differ in term and preterm infants.
5) Relationships of placental pathology to fetal growth are modified by clinical maternal disease.
6) Relationships of placental pathology to fetal growth are modified by maternal exposures (e.g., smoking)

These observations demonstrate the utility of the histopathologic lesion type classification, and its discriminatory capacity regarding fetal growth both in preterm and term infants.

For her more current research see IPAM and Related Research

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Carolyn Salafia - CV