Please select what you would like included for printing: Copy the text below and then paste that into your favorite email application passed away surrounded by her daughter and son-in-law lovingly at her side on April 18 Eugenia grew up during the hardship and upheaval of World War II she carried an unshakable strength and quiet resilience throughout her life where she began building the life that would eventually lead her across the ocean seeking new opportunities and a brighter future continuing to work well into her 80s- a testament to both her work ethic and her independent spirit will be remembered best for her open heart Her cooking was legendary- meals that brought people together She was the very definition of devotion: a widow for 44 years after the passing of her husband Leon; and a matriarch who anchored her family through decades of change Eugenia was preceded in death by her husband Lilianna Feld & Ursula Peterson; parents Grazyna (Joseph) Tretter; her grandchildren and Savannah (Ayden) Walter; Twelve great-grandchildren; and three nieces Eugenia's life was a beautiful story of strength She will be deeply missed and forever remembered April 29 at Maternity of Mary Catholic Church please consider honoring Eugenia's memory with a donation in her name for Mass to The Franciscan Friars at Saint Bernardine Monastery: toll free 866-695-3802 press 2 then ext ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Enter your phone number above to have directions sent via text This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors Metrics details Limited data are available on the causes of hydrops fetalis in dogs Congenital heart defects may be an important contributing factor Standard autopsy often fails to provide a comprehensive and accurate diagnosis on very small hearts This study was carried out on five French bulldog puppies all presenting with advanced hydrops fetalis and four diagnosed with pulmonary hypoplasia at autopsy The body weight of the dogs ranged from 142 to 687 g and the heart with lungs weighed from 4.5 to 23.6 g The hearts and pulmonary vessels were filled with barium contrast and micro-CT scans of the physiologically connected heart and lungs were performed we confirmed congenital heart defects including: Puppy #1 Perimembranous ventricular septal defect and aortic dextroposition; Puppy #2 Interrupted aortic arch with aortic valve dysplasia and aortic stenosis; Puppy #3 Tricuspid valve dysplasia and bicuspid pulmonary trunk valve; Puppy #4 Aortic stenosis and ventricular septal defect; Puppy #5 four puppies had pulmonary vascular hypoplasia Contrast-enhanced micro-CT can provide highly accurate diagnosis of complex congenital heart and lung defects Examination of the heart in conjunction with the lungs appears to be a rational approach in animals with hydrops fetalis however scientific confirmation of this suspicion is lacking mainly due to shortage of diagnostic methods sufficiently precise to be used in newborn dogs whose body and organ size are usually much smaller than in humans This opens completely new opportunities for investigating CHDs in veterinary medicine taking advantage of broader availability of contrast-enhanced micro-CT we decided to investigate the etiology of HF in dogs The body weight of the dogs ranged from 142 g to 687 g and the heart with lungs weighed from 4.5 g to 23.6 g Two dogs had cleft palate (#1 and #2) and two dogs had renomegaly (#1 and #5) accompanied by hepatomegaly in one of them (#1) hemorrhagic fluid was present in the body cavities – 3 dogs (#1 All dogs had swelling of the subcutaneous tissue (anasarca) in dog #5 its diameter equaled the diameter of the pulmonary trunk Puppy #1. Cross-sectional view through both major arteries at the level of the pulmonary trunk bifurcation. Two hypoplastic pulmonary branches are visible. RAA right atrial appendage, AoA aortic arch, PA pulmonary artery, RPA right pulmonary artery, LPA left pulmonary artery. Puppy #4. Pulmonary trunk and its division into the right and left pulmonary artery and the arterial duct. Significant hypoplasia of the left pulmonary artery is visible. LAA left atrial appendage, PT pulmonary trunk, RPA right pulmonary artery, LPA left pulmonary artery, DA ductus arteriosus. Puppy #5. Cross-sectional view through the large artery at the level of the pulmonary trunk division. The ascending aorta, the pulmonary trunk, the hypoplastic right pulmonary artery, a small fragment of the atrium, and the short, initial segment of the hypoplastic departure of the left pulmonary artery are visible. LA left atrium, PT pulmonary trunk, RPA right pulmonary artery, LPA left pulmonary artery, AAo ascending aorta. Puppy #2. Cross-section through the ascending and descending aorta at the level where the aortic arch should be present - asterisk indicates absence of the transverse aortic arch. DAo descending aorta, AAo ascending aorta. Puppy #3. Cross-section through the heart at the level of both great arterial valves. Bicuspid pulmonary valve located on the left and ventrally, aorta on the right and dorsally. Correct spatial relationship. PV pulmonary valve, AV aortic valve. Figure enables visualization of a defect in the interventricular septum and the displacement of the aorta over the right ventricle All specimens showed very good internal contrast on the barium-enhanced micro-CT scan The combination of visual examination of the heart before contrast administration the contrast-enhanced micro-CT and the conventional gross examination allowed to reach the definitive diagnosis we decided to use a barium contrast which is suitable for unfixed tissues We were able to make a full diagnosis in all micro-CT examinations In all 5 puppies the micro-CT diagnosis was confirmed by conventional autopsy and we believe that these tests should be treated as complementary During the anatomopathological examination we frequently referred back to the images obtained from the micro-CT Micro-CT may also be used in the future to prepare virtual models or models in the 3D print for surgical training to aid understanding the complex morphology of CHDs Potential tissue deformation caused by compression during the positioning of the heart itself and also air bubbles in contrast medium can be observed Sequential image assessment is much easier than evaluating individual images and their spatial arrangement – not all images are displayed in standard cutting planes and spatial orientations when the heart is still situated within the patient’s body An additional limitation of this study is that it was conducted on puppies of a single breed—French Bulldogs—which may restrict the generalizability of the findings to other breeds Future studies should include puppies from various breeds to determine whether the observed cardiac changes are consistent across different genetic backgrounds and to provide a more comprehensive understanding of hydrops fetalis Micro-CT with barium sulfate enables the post-mortem diagnosis of significant cardiovascular and pulmonary blood vessels abnormalities in puppies with HF we detected high coincidence of complex CHDs with lungs hypoplasia so it seems reasonable to assess heart in conjunction with lungs The interdisciplinary collaboration among cardiologists and cardiac surgeons is of paramount importance to establish an accurate diagnosis the cranial and caudal vena cava were ligated Poland) was placed in the descending aorta and the balloon was inflated with water so that the catheter tightly filled the lumen of the artery the Foley catheter itself tightly filled the aortic lumen and inflating the balloon was not needed the diameter of the aorta was too small to insert a Foley catheter and an intravenous catheter of 1.3 mm diameter (Becton Dickinson The contrast was administered through the aorta the entire heart could not be filled properly in this manner the catheter was withdrawn slightly and inserted through the aorta and the patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) towards the right ventricle so that the right part of the heart could be reached by the contrast The contrast medium consisted of a mixture of 8 g of pork gelatin dissolved in 50 ml of hot water (temperature 95ºC) and 25 ml of barium sulfate (Barium sulfuricum Medana 1 g/ml the heart and lungs were placed in a 100 ml plastic container and the container was filled with a mixture of 8 g agar (Sigma-Aldrich USA) dissolved in 100 ml of water in a water bath to immobilize organs during the micro-CT examination It included atrioventricular and ventriculoarterial connection both great arteries with the assessment of the aortic arch and both interatrial and interventricular septum the heart chambers were cleared of contrast and the conventional anatomopathological examination pursued All procedures were in line with Polish law regulations Written permission for all examinations was granted by participating owners The study was carried out in accordance with the standards recommended by the EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments and The Act of the Polish Parliament of 15 January 2015 on the Protection of Animals Used for Scientific or Educational Purposes (Journal of Laws 2015 item 266) as we described in Ethics declarations According to Polish legal regulations (The Act of the Polish Parliament of 15 January 2015 on the Protection of Animals Used for Scientific or Educational Purposes no formal ethics consent was required for this study except for the informed consent of participants The utilization of post-mortem tissues for scientific research does not require additional approvals under these regulations Not a single animal was euthanized for the purpose of this study Data is available on request from the corresponding author Incidence and mortality trend of congenital heart disease at the global Birth prevalence of congenital heart defects in Norway 1994–2009–a nationwide study Severe congenital heart defects: incidence causes and time trends of preoperative mortality in Norway Pathologist’s role in identifying cardiac defects-a fetal autopsy series Investigation of optimal sample preparation 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H. et al. Vascular Casting of Adult and early postnatal mouse lungs for Micro-CT imaging. J. Vis. Exp. 20 https://doi.org/10.3791/61242 (2020) Mechanism of spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage formation: an anatomical specimens-based study An Approach to the examination of the fetal congenitally malformed heart at autopsy Cardiac findings in fetal and Pediatric autopsies: a 15-Year retrospective review Hydrops fetalis-trends in associated diagnoses and mortality from 1997–2018 Accuracy of Micro-computed Tomography in Post-mortem evaluation of fetal congenital heart disease Comparison between post-mortem Micro-CT and conventional autopsy Postmortem Micro-CT of human fetal Heart-A systematic literature review Newly-found channels in the interatrial septum of the heart by dissection and three-dimensional microcomputed tomography Current clinical applications and potential perspective of micro-computed tomography in cardiovascular imaging: a systematic scoping review Postmortem evaluation of first trimester fetal heart Common arterial trunk in a cat: a high-resolution morphological analysis with micro-computed tomography Alteration of the gross dimensions of the heart and its structures by formalin fixation The influence of fixation on the cardiac tissue in a 1-year observation of swine hearts Influence of different fixation protocols on the preservation and dimensions of cardiac tissue Pulmonary hypoplasia associated with congenital heart diseases: a fetal study Pulmonary hypoplasia in fetuses with congenital conotruncal defects Virtual museum of congenital heart defects: digitization and establishment of a database for cardiac specimens Studying the microanatomy of the heart in three dimensions: a practical update Coronary micro-computed tomography angiography in mice Morphology of heart valves preserved by liquid nitrogen freezing Autopsy of two frozen newborn infants discovered in a home freezer Download references The publication was (co)financed by Science development fund of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGW Department of Small Animal Diseases with Clinic Department of Morphological Sciences Institute of Veterinary Medicine Division of Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics Department of Descriptive and Clinical Anatomy Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering Jakub Jaroszewicz & Wojciech Święszkowski The lead author (OSJ) directed the analysis and manuscript development All authors read and approved the final manuscript.Conceptualization OSJ; Methodology WŚ;Patient recruitment AG; Tissue harvesting KB WM; Writing - Original draft preparation OSJ The authors declare no competing interests Written permission for all examination was granted by participating owners The study was carried out in accordance with the standards recommended by the EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments and Good Laboratory Practice and The Act of the Polish Parliament of 15 January 2015 on the Protection of Animals Used for Scientific or Educational Purposes (Journal of Laws 2015 item 266) no formal ethics consent was required for this study except for the informed consent of participants the written informed consent for participation in the study was obtained by us from all owners who decided to participate in the study Not a single animal was euthanized for the purpose of the above study Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-88495-2 Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: a shareable link is not currently available for this article Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science Women and Girls with Intellectual Disabilities Beaten “My child’s nightmare lasted around a year and a half sometimes for the entire day or even two days.” This is how a mother described the ordeal her daughter Kasia (pseudonym) went through in a residential institution for girls and women with intellectual disabilities in Jordanów, a small town in southern Poland Having entered two months before her 18th birthday when Kasia was removed from the institution almost two years later her family said she was barely able to speak or walk According to a report by the Polish news website Wirtualna Polska many women and girls experienced abuse and neglect in this institution which at the time of the report was run by a Catholic nuns’ order the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Girls as young as 13 and women with disabilities were beaten with a mop left outside in the cold without shoes as punishment The abuses came to light after former staff members and parents spoke out or locked up in confined spaces – simply because they have a disability Local authorities have initiated an investigation into the alleged violations in the Jordanów institution and, while the investigation is ongoing, have entrusted the management to a different provider. While this response is welcome, more needs to be done to end the practice of people with disabilities being warehoused in Polish institutions. Poland, which is one of the 185 states that ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, should develop a time-bound plan to progressively close institutions and invest in community-based services that support people to live independently in their communities. The Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as well as the broader Catholic Church, should monitor all residential institutions under its authority to ensure people with disabilities are not shackled, beaten, or suffering any other form of abuse, and provide disability rights training to its institutional staff. “I’m sure that there are many more places like this, that many children are suffering like this, but no one shows any interest. These children are screaming behind closed doors,” Kasia’s mother said. It’s high time that governments, including Poland’s, hear these screams, move away from a system of isolation and abuse, and build a system of support and independence. Increasing Barriers to Accessing Sexual and Reproductive Health Care in Romania Poverty and Gender in Germany’s Social Security System Get updates on human rights issues from around the globe. Join our movement today. Get the world’s top human rights news, every day. Human Rights Watch is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit registered in the US under EIN: 13-2875808