Together with my father, retired forensic radiologist dr. Henri de Bakker who successfully defended his PhD thesis in February 2019, and his successor Valerie Niehe, I manage the forensic radiology database of the Green Heart Hospital in Gouda and the Netherlands Forensic Institute in The Hague, The Netherlands. This annually growing forensic radiological database dates back to the year 2000 and comprises over 2500 cases. This unique resource enables data analysis in pre- and post-mortem cases and proved to be a useful source for retrospective research and scientific collaboration.
Link to forensic radiological papers: Pubmed
Dr. Bernadette de Bakker, late Prof. Gil Brogdon. Dr. Henri de Bakker
Fetal age estimation
Accurate estimation of fetal age is imperative for optimal maternal and prenatal care. An incorrect estimate of the fetal age can lead to erroneous labour induction, resulting in premature childbirth, or an increased risk of stillbirth. A pregnancy dating scan to define the exact gestational age based on the crown-rump length (CRL) of a fetus, and is normally performed around week 10-11 of the pregnancy. This method has proven much more accurate for gestational compared to using the last menstrual period as a temporal reference. There are, however, many plausible situations in which age determination in a later stage of the pregnancy becomes necessary, for instance when a deceased fetus is found in presumed cases of neonaticide or infanticide.
To improve mother-and-child care in clinical cases of nonstandard (e.g. trisomies, multifetal) or uncontrolled pregnancies and to improve age estimation in cases of neonaticide there is an urge to create a scientifically validated tool to adequately estimate fetal age over the entire course of the pregnancy.
