Bernadette de Bakker

Amsterdam UMC location Academic Medical Center University of Amsterdam

Introduction: Forensic radiology in the living and postmortem is a new horizon in legal medicine for the detection and documentation of forensic evidence and reconstruction of the manner of death. A collaboration was undertaken 15 years ago between the Netherlands Forensic Institute, where all forensic autopsies in the Netherlands are performed, an...

Importance Human fetal tissue is essential for biomedical research, providing unparalleled insights into human development and disease. Objective To assess changes in parental decisions to donate fetal tissue following termination of pregnancy after the introduction of the Dutch Fetal Biobank (DFB) and to identify factors associated with consent t...

Background The process of vascular development is essential for shaping complex craniofacial structures. Investigating the interplay between vascular development and orofacial morphogenesis holds critical importance in clinical practice and contributes to advancing our comprehension of (vascular) developmental biology. New insights into specific va...

Background Visualizing (micro)vascular structures remains challenging for researchers and clinicians due to limitations in traditional radiological imaging methods. Exploring the role of vascular development in craniofacial malformations in experimental settings can enhance understanding of these processes, with the effectiveness of high-resolution...

Introduction The decision to terminate a pregnancy due to fetal anomalies can have a significant emotional impact, especially in second‐trimester terminations. Previous studies on the psychological consequences of pregnancy termination have had limitations, and little is known about the outcomes for partners and the impact of fetal donation. Theref...

Study question To study a DNA methylation signature of monozygotic twins in relation to medically assisted reproduction (MAR), higher-order gestations, and genome-wide common genetic variants. Summary answer Monozygotic twinning and MAR show largely distinct DNA methylation signatures. Monozygotic triplets, like monozygotic twins, carry a comparab...

Background: Prenatal ultrasound is widely used to screen for structural anomalies before birth. While this is traditionally done in the second trimester, there is an increasing use of first-trimester ultrasound for early detection of lethal and certain severe structural anomalies. Objectives: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound in...

Small intestine (SI) maturation during early life is pivotal in preventing the onset of gut diseases. In this study we interrogated the milestones of SI development by gene expression profiling and ingenuity pathway analyses. We identified a set of cytokines as main regulators of changes observed across different developmental stages. Upon cytokine...

Objectives Down syndrome (DS) is associated with airway abnormalities including a narrowed trachea. It is uncertain whether this narrowed trachea in DS is a consequence of deviant fetal development or an acquired disorder following endotracheal intubation after birth. This study aimed to compare the tracheal morphology in DS and non‐DS fetuses usin...

Background and purpose: High label uptake in 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT recently identified a bilateral nasopharyngeal structure as a salivary gland (SG)-like additional 'area of interest', to be considered in conditions affecting SGs. These structures were termed 'tubarial glands'. We aimed to further characterize their histological and immunohistochemi...

For over half a century, the Carnegie staging system has been used for the unification of chronology in human embryo development. Despite the system’s establishment as a “universal” system, Carnegie staging reference charts display a high level of variation. To establish a clear understanding for embryologists and medical professionals, we aimed to...

STUDY QUESTION Is there a difference in embryonic morphological development between ongoing pregnancies and live pregnancies ending in a miscarriage? SUMMARY ANSWER Embryonic morphological development, assessed by the Carnegie stages, is delayed in live pregnancies ending in a miscarriage compared to ongoing pregnancies. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Pre...

Objectives Adult spleens show extensive morphological variation, with a reported prevalence of 40–98% clefts (also called notches or fissures) on the splenic surface and 10–30% accessory spleens at autopsy. It is hypothesised that both anatomical variants result from a complete or partial failure of multiple splenic primordia to fuse to the main bo...

Objective: To explore the normal variation of asymmetry in mandibles of children in the age of 1 to 12 years old. Materials and methods: The study group consisted of 92 cadaveric mandibles of children with a dental age of 1 to 12 years old in possession of ACTA (Academic Centre for Dentistry Amsterdam), Faculty of Dentistry, the Netherlands. 3D...

Objective: Some studies have suggested that introducing a second-trimester anomaly scan (SAS) leads to increased rates of termination of pregnancy (TOP) in fetuses with orofacial clefts (OFCs). The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a nationwide introduction of SAS on the prevalence of live births with OFCs in the Netherlands. Design...

Over the last few years, fetal postmortem microfocus computed tomography (micro-CT) imaging has increased in popularity for both diagnostic and research purposes. Micro-CT imaging could be a substitute for autopsy, particularly in very early gestation fetuses for whom autopsy can be technically challenging and is often unaccepted by parents. This a...

Evolutionary responses to selection for bipedalism and childbirth have shaped the human pelvis, a structure that differs substantially from that in apes. Morphology related to these factors is present by birth, yet the developmental-genetic mechanisms governing pelvic shape remain largely unknown. Here, we pinpoint and characterize a key gestationa...

To increase our understanding of the etiology of specific neurological disorders (e.g., Duane syndrome, glossoptosis in Pierre Robin sequence), proper knowledge of anatomy and embryology of cranial nerves is necessary. We investigated cranial nerve development, studied histological sections of human embryos, and quantitatively analyzed the 3D recon...

Neonatal surgery and concomitant anesthesia coincide with a timeframe of rapid brain development. The speed and complexity of early brain development superimposed on immature regulatory mechanisms that include incomplete cerebral autoregulation, insufficient free radical scavenging and an immature immune response puts the brain at risk. Brain injur...

Due to advancements in ultrasound techniques, the focus of antenatal ultrasound screening is moving towards the first trimester of pregnancy. The early first trimester however remains in part, a ‘black box’, due to the size of the developing embryo and the limitations of contemporary scanning techniques. Therefore there is a need for images of earl...

Objective: After stillbirth, termination of pregnancy for congenital anomalies, or intrauterine fetal demise, fetal autopsy is generally recommended to confirm or refute the antemortem diagnosis. Although fetal autopsy often results in clinically significant findings, parental acceptance of invasive autopsy has fallen over time, mainly due to the...

Diffusible iodine-based contrast-enhanced computed tomography (diceCT) is progressively used in clinical and morphological research to study developmental anatomy. Lugol’s solution (Lugol) has gained interest as an effective contrast agent; however, usage is limited due to extensive soft-tissue shrinkage. The mechanism of Lugol-induced shrinkage an...

Objectives: In this era of NIPT, when dating scans are usually performed around 10 weeks of gestation, an increased NT before the official established timeframe (CRL between 45-84 mm) may be encountered. Information on management of these pregnancies is limited. Therefore, we evaluated the relationship between an early increased NT and adverse pre...

Objective Mycophenolate embryopathy (ME) is a congenital malformation induced by mycophenolic acid (MA). Microtia is the most common ME phenotype. This study aimed to identify the key genes in the pathological process of microtia caused by mycophenolate mofetil (MM) through bioinformatics methods, to explore the potential pathogenesis, and to provi...

Diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound screening for fetal structural abnormalities during the first and second trimester of pregnancy in low-risk and unselected populations (Protocol).

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-021-03889-w

Background: The "buffalo chest" is a condition in which a simultaneous bilateral pneumothorax occurs due to a communication of both pleural cavities caused by an iatrogenic or idiopathic fenestration of the mediastinum. This rare condition is known by many doctors because of a particular anecdote that stated that Native Americans could kill a Nort...

PurposeFatal trauma on the neck occurs frequent in forensic cases and often results in fractures of the hyoid-larynx complex. The aim of the present study is to provide an overview of fractures in the hyoid-larynx complex that occur due to fatal trauma on the neck and can be observed by radiological evaluation.Methods Radiological images from a for...

On the evenings of June 11 and 12, 2019, 5 and 6 days before full moon, broadcast spawning by four echinoderm species and two mollusc species was observed on the Marsa Shagra reef, Egypt (25° 14′ 44.2" N, 34° 47′ 49.0" E). Water temperature was 28 °C and the invertebrates were observed at 2–8 m depth. The sightings included a single basket star Ast...

Bilaterally symmetrical primordia of visceral organs undergo asymmetrical morphogenesis leading to typical arrangement of visceral organs in the adult. Asymmetrical morphogenesis within the upper abdomen leads, among others, to the formation of the omental bursa dorsally to the rotated stomach. A widespread view of this process assumes kinking of t...

Although it is commonly accepted that fertilisation in humans occurs in the ampulla of the fallopian tube, the peritoneal cavity might represent an alternative fertilisation site. Studies substantiating both fertilisation sites were reviewed and new insights on the fertilisation site in humans are discussed, including their implications for reprodu...

Objective To analyze the incidence of submucous cleft palate (SMCP) in a large national database and raise awareness among referring providers: pediatricians, speech pathologists, and dentists to minimize delay in diagnosis. Design Retrospective cohort study. Setting Tertiary setting. Patients Patients were extracted from the “Dutch Association...

This data article presents datasets associated with the research article entitled “The immunological architecture of granulomatous inflammation in central nervous system tuberculosis’’ (Zaharie et al., 2020). The morphology of tuberculosis related granulomas within the central nervous system of human patients was visualized in six different three-d...

Mitchell-Riley syndrome (MRS) is caused by recessive mutations in the regulatory factor X6 gene (RFX6) and is characterised by pancreatic hypoplasia and neonatal diabetes. To determine why individuals with MRS specifically lack pancreatic endocrine cells, we micro-CT imaged a 12-week-old foetus homozygous for the nonsense mutation RFX6 c.1129C>T, w...

Figure 9: Overview of most common competing descriptions of development of the omental bursa. A-C Transversal schematic drawings illustrating classical view of the OB development as proposed by Johannes Müllers. Development of the omental bursa is an effect of the stomach rotation related to displacement of thin mesenteries. Inset in A demonstrates...

Of all tuberculosis (TB) cases, 1% affects the central nervous system (CNS), with a mortality rate up to 60%. Our aim is to fill the ‘key gap’ in TBM research by analyzing brain specimens in a unique historical cohort of 84 patients, focusing on granuloma formation. We describe three different types: non-necrotizing, necrotizing gummatous, and necr...

Introduction Congenital tracheal anomalies are associated with high morbidity and mortality. The etiology of congenital tracheal anomalies is not well understood, but often attributed to malformed tracheal cartilage. The development of tracheal cartilage has not been described in detail. In this study, we aimed to investigate the development patter...

Introduction: The presence of previously unnoticed bilateral macroscopic salivary gland locations in the human nasopharynx was suspected after visualization by positron emission tomography/computed tomography with prostate-specific membrane antigen ligands (PSMA PET/CT). We aimed to elucidate the characteristics of this unknown entity and their po...

Online supplemental material is available for this article.

Purpose: Fatal trauma on the neck occurs frequent in forensic cases and often results in fractures of the hyoid-larynx complex. The aim of the present study is to provide an overview of fractures in the hyoid-larynx complex that occur due to fatal trauma on the neck and can be observed by radiological evaluation. Methods: Radiological images fro...

Massive vascular gas embolism is a feared and often lethal symptom of decompression illness, resulting from diving accidents. The aim of this case report was to correlate post-mortem computed tomography scan (PMCT) findings with autopsy in cases of massive vascular gas embolism. Two cases of fatal diving accidents were retrospectively selected from...

Objective Post-mortem computed tomography (PMCT) has become the standard imaging technique prior to forensic autopsy. Dedicated imaging of the excised hyoid-larynx complex (HLC) is often performed to diagnose fractures, which are indicative for violence on the neck. The aim of this study was to define which imaging technique present in our general...

Recent advances in stem cell biology and tissue engineering have laid the groundwork for building complex tissues in a dish. We propose that these technologies are ready for a new challenge: recapitulating cardiac morphogenesis in vitro. In development, the heart transforms from a simple linear tube to a four-chambered organ through a complex proce...

Objectives/Hypothesis: Congenital auricular anomalies are common. Additionally, the auricle plays an important role in the staging of human embryos. However, little is known about the embryological development of the auricle. The most commonly reproduced developmental theory by His (1885) describes six hillocks; three on the first and three on the...

In classic anatomy teaching, the brachial plexus generally features as an enigmatic rote‐learned structure, leaving the student with a feeling of complexity. The notion of complexity may increase in dissections, where plexuses significantly differing from the standard plexus model are readily found. This raises questions: what determines the existe...

Background: MRI and CT have been extensively used to study fetal anatomy for research and diagnostic purposes, enabling minimally invasive autopsy and giving insight in human fetal development. Novel (contrast-enhanced) microfocus CT (micro-CT) and ultra-high-field (≥ 7.0 T) MRI (UHF-MRI) techniques now enable micron-level resolution that combats...

Thorough anatomic knowledge of the hyoid-larynx complex is necessary for forensic radiologists and ear-nose-throat surgeons, given the many anatomic variations that originate in embryology. In forensics the anomalies must be distinguished from fractures because the latter are indicative of violence on the neck. In this manuscript we describe the an...

Background: Pulmonary bullae and blebs can result in a pneumothorax. Their prevalence in the normal population is currently unknown. We used post-mortem computed tomography (PMCT) from a forensic database to determine the prevalence of pulmonary bullae/blebs in the normal Dutch adult population and its consequence for diving medicine, as they are...

Background: Knowledge of embryonic development is essential to understand the positioning of organs in the human body. Unfortunately, (bio)medical students have to struggle with textbooks that use static, two-dimensional (2D) schematics to grasp the intricate three-dimensional (3D) morphogenesis of the developing human body. To facilitate embryolo...

Contemporary papers and book chapters on nephrology open with the assumption that human kidney development passes through three morphological stages: pronephros, mesonephros, and metanephros. Current knowledge of the human pronephros, however, appears to be based on only a hand full of human specimens. The ongoing use of variations in the definitio...

Existence and biomedical relevance of the neurenteric canal, a transient midline structure during early neurulation in the human embryo, have been controversially discussed for more than a century by embryologists and clinicians alike. In this study, the authors address the long-standing enigma by high-resolution histology and three-dimensional rec...

The notochord is a major regulator of embryonic patterning in vertebrates and abnormal notochordal development is associated with a variety of birth defects in man. Proper knowledge of the development of the human notochord, therefore, is important to understand the pathogenesis of these birth defects. Textbook descriptions vary significantly and s...

Histological sections of three stage 8 (17–19 days) human embryos. Specimens Nos. 10157, 5960 and 7545 of the Carnegie collection with cross-sections at the same level, matching the black lines in the ventral illustration. The notochordal process becomes smaller, containing less nuclei or cells, in the cranial direction in specimen 5960 and 7545. F...

Objectives Fire deaths are challenging fatalities for forensic pathologists, as the main question of whether death was due to the fire or not needs to be answered. In this retrospective study, we assessed whether post-mortem computed tomography (PMCT) has an added value prior to a forensic autopsy of burned victims. Methods From 2008 to 2016, a PM...