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Abdominal sonography is a best method to defined implantation site of placenta. Determination of placental site is very important if the aggressive method is to be used this study design to define implantation site of placenta in 1585 pregnant women whom referred 28 wk to sonographic center to Deziani Hospital in their third trimester with routine prenatal care. Collection of data perform in nine month and the data was collected by interviewing the pregnant women using a checklist and questionnaire. The results from this investigation show that 51.79% of placenta located in fondoanterior 31.23% fondoposterior, 12.11% posterior another in lateral position and 0.18% of placenta was previa.

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Background and Objective: Placenta previa (PP) is a common cause of pri-partum bleeding leading to high mortality and morbidity in mothers and neonates. This study was conducted to determine risk factors and outcomes of PP in Golestan province of Iran. Materials and Methods: This case-control study was done on pregnant women admitted for deliverly to the Dezyani hospital of Gorgan, Iran during 2002-07. All PP cases were recruited as case group and 251 non-PP ones were entered into the study as control group. Student t-test and Chi-Square test were used to assess the relationship between variables. Results: In this study out of 33473 pregnant cases, 82 women (0.24%) had PP. The mean (±SD) age of mothers with PP was 28.5 (±6.2) years. There was a significant correlation between PP and delivery method (P<0.05). History of cesarean section was significantly higher in cases than controls (P<0.05). The prevalence of hysterectomy due to PP was significantly higher in women with history of cesarean section (24%) than other ones (5%) (P<0.05). Conclusion: We found a significant relationship between history of cesarean section and hysterectomy due to PP. Therefore, PP should be considered in women with a history of cesarean section.

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Background and Objective: The food additives, like sodium and potassium benzoate are used in many food products and drugs to prevent the growth of yeast and molds. There is no report about the histopathological effect of potassium benzoate. Placenta, has a critical role in embryonic development therefore this study was set up to evaluate the effects of potassium benzoate on placenta of BALB/c mice.

Materials and Methods: 45 BALB/c female mice were allocated into two experimental (1, 2) and one control groups. Experimental groups received daily intraperitoneal injection of 280 and 560 mg/kg/body weight of potassium benzoate and control group received normal saline. All injections were done during 10 days before mating and 5^th to 16^th of gestational days (GD). In GD 18 all placenta were removed via cesarean section. Macroscopic studies for morphological abnormalities were done and after measuring of placental weight and diameter, for microscopic studies the specimens were fixed and tissue passage were done. Tissue sections were stained with hematoxylin-eosin and histopathological changes were studied. Weight, diameter and percentage of agenesis of placenta in all groups were gathered. Data analyzed with using
SPSS-11.5, ANOVA and Tukey tests.

Results: The mean weight and diameter of the placenta in both experimental groups 1 and 2 were significantly decreased compared to control group. Also atrophy of placenta in the experimental groups was increased significantly compared to the control group (P<0.05). Comparison of weight and diameter between groups 1 and 2 was not significant. Percentage of placenta agenesis in the experimental groups was increased significantly compared to the control group (P<0.05). Massive hemorrhage in labyrinth zone, fetal and maternal zones were seen in both experimental groups.

Conclusion: This study showed that exposure of potassium benzoate during mice pregnancy cause morphological and histopathological changes of placenta, including decrease of weight and diameter, agenesis, hemorrhage and tissue disorders.