Antibacterial antisense.

The concept of using antisense antibiotics is revolutionary. Instead of targeting proteins or macromolecular complexes, as do traditional antibiotics, antisense oligomers target specific genes, rRNA or mRNA, and inhibit expression of the targeted sequence. Recent advances have shown that two types of antisense oligomer, peptide nucleic acids and phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (PMOs), inhibit gene expression in a sequence-specific and dose-dependent manner at low micromolar concentrations.

Practical Clues to Early Recognition of Bipolar Disorder: A Primary Care Approach.

Early treatment can favorably impact the course of bipolar disorder, a lifelong illness. Because bipolar disorder can masquerade as various mental and physical illnesses-primarily major depressive disorder-patients with this condition frequently go unrecognized for years. During this recognition lag, such patients may present to their primary care physician on multiple occasions.

Physician predictors of mammographic accuracy.

Background: The association between physician experience and the accuracy of screening mammography in community practice is not well studied. We identified characteristics of U.S.

Lactococcal 936-species phage attachment to surface of Lactococcus lactis.

The interactions of the 936-species phages sk1, jj50, and 64 with the cell surface of Lactococcus lactis LM0230 were analyzed. Cell envelopes (walls + plasma membrane), cell wall, or plasma membrane from L. lactis ssp.

Breast cancer yield for screening mammographic examinations with recommendation for short-interval follow-up.

Purpose: To compare cancer yield for screening examinations with recommendation for short-interval follow-up after diagnostic imaging work-up versus after screening mammography only.

Materials And Methods: From January 1996 to December 1999, Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System assessments and recommendations were collected prospectively for 1,171,792 screening examinations in 758,015 women aged 40-89 years at seven mammography registries in Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium. Registries obtained waiver of signed consent or collected signed consent in accordance with institutional review boards at each location.

Association between mammography timing and measures of screening performance in the United States.

Purpose: To evaluate whether there is an association between the number of months since previous mammography (MSPM) and performance measures (sensitivity, specificity, recall rate, cancer detection rate, and positive predictive value) in women who underwent U.S. community-based screening mammography.

Antisense phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomer length and target position effects on gene-specific inhibition in Escherichia coli.

Phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (PMOs) are synthetic DNA analogs that inhibit gene expression in a sequence-dependent manner. PMOs of various lengths (7 to 20 bases) were tested for inhibition of luciferase expression in Escherichia coli. Shorter PMOs generally inhibited luciferase greater than longer PMOs.

Biennial versus annual mammography and the risk of late-stage breast cancer.

Background: Mammography screening may reduce breast cancer mortality by detecting cancers at an earlier stage. However, certain questions remain, including the ideal interval between mammograms.

Methods: We conducted an observational study using information collected by seven mammography registries across the United States to investigate whether women diagnosed with breast cancer after having screening mammograms separated by a 2-year interval (n = 2440) are more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage disease (positive lymph nodes or metastases) than women diagnosed with breast cancer after having screening mammograms separated by a 1-year interval (n = 5400).

Relationship of parent and child informants to prevalence of mania symptoms in children with a prepubertal and early adolescent bipolar disorder phenotype.

Objective: A controversy regarding pediatric bipolar disorder is whether to use child in addition to parent informants. To investigate this issue, the authors conducted a study comparing separate child and parent interview data for child bipolar disorder.

Method: Responses on the Washington University in St.

Moving in between mammography: screening decisions of American Indian women in Vermont.

Breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer death among American Indian women, with mammography screening rates below the national average for this population. A grounded theory study, conducted with Vermont American Indian women, explicated factors that influence mammography decision making. The authors examined mammography decision making across the breast cancer screening continuum: women with a history of consistent annual mammograms, women who were under users or nonusers of mammography, and women who were breast cancer survivors.

A prospective study of breast cancer risk using routine mammographic breast density measurements.

Mammographic breast density is a major risk factor for breast cancer but estimates of the relative risk associated with differing density patterns have varied widely. It is also unclear how menopausal status influences this association and to what extent the effects of density are due to its correlation with other risk factors. Most recent investigations of breast density have been case-control studies, which provide indirect estimates of relative risk.

Mucosal vaccine made from live, recombinant Lactococcus lactis protects mice against pharyngeal infection with Streptococcus pyogenes.

A novel vaccine (LL-CRR) made from live, nonpathogenic Lactococcus lactis that expresses the conserved C-repeat region (CRR) of M protein from Streptococcus pyogenes serotype 6 was tested in mice. Nasally vaccinated mice produced CRR-specific salivary immunoglobulin A (IgA) and serum IgG. Subcutaneously vaccinated mice produced CRR-specific serum IgG but not salivary IgA.

Four-year prospective outcome and natural history of mania in children with a prepubertal and early adolescent bipolar disorder phenotype.

Background: Diagnosis of child mania has been contentious.

Objective: To investigate natural history and prospective validation of the existence and long-episode duration of mania in children.

Design: Four-year prospective longitudinal study of 86 subjects with intake episode mania who were all assessed at 6, 12, 18, 24, 36, and 48 months.

Patient perceptions of breast biopsy procedures for screen-detected lesions.

Objective: This study was undertaken to compare patient perceptions of 2 common image-guided breast biopsy procedures on 3 main outcomes: decision making about which procedure to undergo, its convenience, and its side effects.

Methods: Women who had either an excisional or ultrasound-guided core needle breast biopsy in 1997 for a screen-detected lesion had telephone interviews 1 to 3 months after the biopsy. Bivariate associations were tested by using chi(2) and t test statistics.

Differential activation of the NF-kappaB-like factors Relish and Dif in Drosophila melanogaster by fungi and Gram-positive bacteria.

The current model of immune activation in Drosophila melanogaster suggests that fungi and Gram-positive (G(+)) bacteria activate the Toll/Dif pathway and that Gram-negative (G(-)) bacteria activate the Imd/Relish pathway. To test this model, we examined the response of Relish and Dif (Dorsal-related immunity factor) mutants to challenge by various fungi and G(+) and G(-) bacteria. In Relish mutants, the Cecropin A gene was induced by the G(+) bacteria Micrococcus luteus and Staphylococcus aureus, but not by other G(+) or G(-) bacteria.

Temperament and character factors in a prepubertal and early adolescent bipolar disorder phenotype compared to attention deficit hyperactive and normal controls.

Objective: To compare temperament and character (T/C) factors in a prepubertal and early adolescent bipolar disorder phenotype (PEA-BP), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and normal community controls (NC).

Methods: Subjects in PEA-BP (n = 101), ADHD (n = 68), and NC (n = 94) groups were diagnostically assessed with the Washington University in St. Louis Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia given separately to mothers about their children and to children about themselves.

Effect of breast augmentation on the accuracy of mammography and cancer characteristics.

Context: Breast augmentation is not associated with an increased risk of breast cancer; however, implants may interfere with the detection of breast cancer thereby delaying cancer diagnosis in women with augmentation.

Objective: To determine whether mammography accuracy and tumor characteristics are different for women with and without augmentation.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A prospective cohort of 137 women with augmentation and 685 women without augmentation diagnosed with breast cancer between January 1, 1995, and October 15, 2002, matched (1:5) by age, race/ethnicity, previous mammography screening, and mammography registry, and 10 533 women with augmentation and 974 915 women without augmentation and without breast cancer among 7 mammography registries in Denver, Colo; Lebanon, NH; Albuquerque, NM; Chapel Hill, NC; San Francisco, Calif; Seattle, Wash; and Burlington, Vt.

Factors associated with arm swelling after breast cancer surgery.

Purpose: As life expectancy improves for women with breast cancer, more women will be living with symptoms of lymphedema. This study reports the incidence of arm or hand swelling and associated risk factors in women with invasive breast cancer following surgery.

Methods: Data were obtained from baseline and follow-up interviews of women with invasive breast cancer (n = 145), and mammography and pathology records.

Life events in a prepubertal and early adolescent bipolar disorder phenotype compared to attention-deficit hyperactive and normal controls.

Objective: To examine life events in subjects with a prepubertal and early adolescent bipolar disorder phenotype (PEA-BP) compared to those in subjects with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and normal controls (NC).

Methods: To optimize generalizeability, subjects with PEA-BP (n = 93) and ADHD (n = 81) were consecutively ascertained from pediatric and psychiatric sites. Subjects in the NC group (n = 94) were obtained from a random survey.

Prognostic characteristics of breast cancer among postmenopausal hormone users in a screened population.

Purpose: We determined the risk of breast cancer and tumor characteristics among current postmenopausal hormone therapy users compared with nonusers, by duration of use.

Methods: From January 1996 to December 2000, data were collected prospectively on 374,465 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79 years who underwent screening mammography. We calculated the relative risk (RR) of breast cancer (invasive or ductal carcinoma-in-situ) and type of breast cancer within 12 months of postmenopausal therapy use among current hormone users with a uterus (proxy for estrogen and progestin use) and without a uterus (proxy for estrogen use), compared with nonusers.

Definitions of rapid, ultrarapid, and ultradian cycling and of episode duration in pediatric and adult bipolar disorders: a proposal to distinguish episodes from cycles.

Objective: To propose terminology to distinguish cycles from episodes in children and adults with bipolar disorder (BP).

Methods: To examine current definitions of rapid cycling and episodes in both child and adult BP, an Internet search of the MEDLINE database was conducted.

Results: Investigations of rapid cycling in adults used the terms cycle and episode interchangeably to describe discrete periods of mood disorders.

Ages of onset and rates of syndromal and subsyndromal comorbid DSM-IV diagnoses in a prepubertal and early adolescent bipolar disorder phenotype.

Objective: To study rates and ages of onset of DSM-IV syndromal and subsyndromal comorbidity in a prepubertal and early adolescent bipolar disorder phenotype (PEA-BP) (N = 93) compared to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (N = 81).

Method: The WASH-U-KSADS was given by raters blinded to subject group separately to mothers about their children and to children about themselves. PEA-BP was defined as DSM-IV mania with at least one cardinal symptom of mania (elation or grandiosity) to avoid diagnosing using only symptoms that overlapped with those for ADHD.

Mammography surveillance following breast cancer.

Background: To describe when women diagnosed with breast cancer return for their first mammography, and to identify factors predictive of women returning for mammographic surveillance.

Methods: Women who underwent mammography at facilities participating in the National Cancer Institute's Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC) during 1996 and who were subsequently diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ or invasive breast cancer were included in this study. Data from seven mammography registries were linked to population-based cancer and pathology registries.