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Placental vasculature, in particular the relationship between maternal and fetal blood circulations, has been a contentious issue for a long time. In his magnificent Anatomy of the human gravid uterus William Hunter included the first drawing of spiral arteries (convoluted arteries), in what must have been the very first illustration of a human placental bed. The French anatomist Mathias Duval was probably the first to recognize the invasion of trophoblast into endometrial arteries, in this case in the rat. It it became clear that deep trophoblast invasion and associated spiral artery remodeling are essential for a healthy pregnancy. The actual depth of invasion was underrated for a long time, partly because of the increasing popularity of the decidual barrier concept. Early observations of trophoblast invasion into the spiral arteries set the stage for understanding the maternal blood supply to the placenta via the spiral arteries of the placental bed.
The origin of placental septa and the orifices of spiral arteries have been the subject of great controversy. The anatomy of the venous drainage has also been the subject of much discussion. The intrusive cells in the lumen as described by C. Friedlander were intensively studied by J. D. Boyd and W. J. Hamilton using their large collection of uterine specimens with the placenta in situ. The delivered placenta and fetal membranes were for many years the commonest method of obtaining material for the study of spiral artery pathology, and there were large discrepancies between the findings in this material. The method of placental bed biopsy produced useful material, but nevertheless was criticized by Hamilton and Boyd. The spiral artery anatomy as well as the vascular pathology were only revealed after studying uteri with in situ placentae pregnancy that compromise both maternal and fetal health.
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