The most frequent complications include acute and chronic forms of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS). The placental anastomoses which occur in TTTS are responsible for blood transfusion from the potential ‘donor’ to the so called ‘recipient’. Selleck Target Selective Inhibitor Library These hemodynamic disturbances between the

blood circulation systems of both fetuses lead to the development of various irregularities. Consequently, the development of arterial hypertension occurs in the ‘recipient’ and hypotonia, hypovolemia and thrombosis are often observed in the ‘donor’. As a result of this, the growth of the ‘recipient’ is sped up and the development of the ‘donor’ is delayed. Discrepancies in fetal growth occur, resulting from a significant increase in the mass of the ‘recipient’ and from ‘donor’ growth limitations. These discrepancies in fetal growth are characterised by differences in body mass and stomach circumferences [3, 4]. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact

of monochorionocity on the duration of pregnancy, perinatal mortality, and the developmental state of twins as determined by the Apgar score and by values of somatic features. This study included a group of 2526 twins of both sexes (including 536 monochorional and 1990 dichorional twins) born at the Clinic of Perinatology and Gynaecology of the Medical University of Poznan between 2003 and 2009. All the procedures were approved by the Local Ethics Committee of the Medical University in Forskolin nmr Poznan. The material was characterised in terms of morphological development by the following six somatic features: body mass, total length, crown and rump length, shoulder width, head circumference, and chest circumference. The definitions of features and the methods of their measurement were in compliance with the measuring technique proposed by Martin [5]. The overall condition of the newborns was evaluated Immune system on the basis of the Apgar score. The initial Apgar score used in our studies was determined at the first minute of life, while the final one was determined at the tenth minute of

life. Additionally, histopathological examinations involving the placenta evaluated the degree of morphological-functional disturbances. The studied material was analysed statistically by means of basic statistical characteristics. To ascertain if the studied somatic features were variable in context of the analysed factors, and to possibly determine their significance, variance analysis testing was applied for the repeated measurements. The Pearson χ2 statistics used in the analysis indicated the presence of a dependency between the frequency of premature births and deaths and the number of chorions in the placentas of twins. Calculations were performed using the Statistica 8 (StatSoft®, Poland) package, with statistical significance defined as p≤0.05.