Babies with birthmarks get less oxygen

MADRID, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Infants with birthmarks received less oxygen than others in the womb, researchers in Spain found.

Dr. Juan Carlos Lopez Gutierrez of La Paz Children's Hospital in Madrid said a hemangioma is a benign tumor of cells that line blood vessels, appearing during the first few weeks of life as a large birthmark or lesion.

Gutierrez reviewed placental samples from 26 pregnancies with babies who weighed less than 3.5 pounds, 13 newborns who developed infantile hemangioma after birth and 13 healthy preterm infants who did not have infantile hemangioma.

The study, published in Pediatric Dermatology, found a disturbance of oxygen depletion was found in placentas of babies who developed infantile hemangioma.

The higher ratio of placental anomalies in babies with infantile hemangioma suggests that reduced oxygen to the placenta contributed to fetal stress, and that stress led to infantile hemangioma development.