ACR Appropriateness Criteria® on nonpalpable mammographic findings (excluding calcifications).

Screening mammography can detect breast cancer before it becomes clinically apparent. However, the screening process identifies many false-positive findings for each cancer eventually confirmed. Additional tools are available to help differentiate spurious findings from real ones and to help determine when tissue sampling is required, when short-term follow-up will suffice, or whether the finding can be dismissed as benign.

Immunosuppressive treatments reduce long-term immunity to smallpox among patients with breast cancer.

Background: Mass vaccination is the principal preventive measure against a smallpox outbreak after an act of bioterrorism. Vaccination of subjects who received immunosuppressive therapies is problematic because of smallpox vaccine reactogenicity. Moreover, long-term immunity to vaccinia might be affected.

Rapid detection of influenza A pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus neuraminidase resistance mutation H275Y by real-time reverse transcriptase PCR.

The emergence of oseltamivir-resistant influenza A pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus highlights the need for rapid oseltamivir resistance screening. We report the development and validation of high-throughput real-time reverse transcriptase PCR assays for the detection of the H275Y substitution in the neuraminidase 1 gene that can be accomplished in 3 to 4 h.

Breast cancer screening with imaging: recommendations from the Society of Breast Imaging and the ACR on the use of mammography, breast MRI, breast ultrasound, and other technologies for the detection of clinically occult breast cancer.

Screening for breast cancer with mammography has been shown to decrease mortality from breast cancer, and mammography is the mainstay of screening for clinically occult disease. Mammography, however, has well-recognized limitations, and recently, other imaging including ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging have been used as adjunctive screening tools, mainly for women who may be at increased risk for the development of breast cancer. The Society of Breast Imaging and the Breast Imaging Commission of the ACR are issuing these recommendations to provide guidance to patients and clinicians on the use of imaging to screen for breast cancer.

[Laboratory diagnosis of influenza H1N1 2009 at the Central Virology Laboratory in Israel during the first 12 weeks of the pandemic].

Background: Diagnosis of new emerging viruses in Israel is the responsibility of the Ministry of Health's Central Virology Laboratory (CVL). In April 2009, following the emergence of influenza H1N1 2009 virus in Mexico and the WHO declaration of pandemia, the Israeli preparedness plan was launched.

Aims: Development and application of a diagnostic test for H1N1 2009, diagnosis of cases in an outbreak setting and data analysis.

[Clinical and virological surveillance of influenza in Israel--implementation during pandemic influenza].

Background: Pandemic influenza surveillance has a central role in providing an updated situation for the health care system.

Aim: To describe the Israel Center for Disease Control (ICDC) pandemic influenza surveillance system.

Methods: The ICDC conducts a seasonal influenza surveillance system based on patients' visits to community clinics (mainly Maccabi Healthcare Services) and emergency rooms for influenza-like illness (ILI) or pneumonia, and on laboratory confirmed nasopharyngeal swabs from ILI patients at designated sentinel clinics (tested at the Central Virology Laboratory).

Reasons women at elevated risk of breast cancer refuse breast MR imaging screening: ACRIN 6666.

Purpose: To determine reasons for nonparticipation in a trial of supplemental screening with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging after mammography and ultrasonography (US).

Materials And Methods: Women(n = 2809) at elevated risk of breast cancer were enrolled in the American College of Radiology Imaging Network 6666 US Screening Protocol at 21 institutions. Fourteen institutions met technical and experience requirements for this institutional review board-approved, HIPAA-compliant substudy of supplemental screening with MR imaging.

The ACR BI-RADS experience: learning from history.

The Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) initiative, instituted by the ACR, was begun in the late 1980s to address a lack of standardization and uniformity in mammography practice reporting. An important component of the BI-RADS initiative is the lexicon, a dictionary of descriptors of specific imaging features. The BI-RADS lexicon has always been data driven, using descriptors that previously had been shown in the literature to be predictive of benign and malignant disease.

Effect of season of inoculation on immune response to rubella vaccine in children.

The yearly seasons are marked by changes in the amount of sunlight. Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is known to adversely affect the course of viral infections, immunologic memory and cellular and humoral immune responses. Our objectives were to investigate potential differences in the immune response of the rubella vaccine after 3-4 years by season of inoculation.

The effect of infliximab on antiviral antibody profiles in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

The duration of humoral immunity in patients treated with immunosuppressive drugs is poorly defined. The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of infliximab on the levels of antiviral antibodies against poliomyelitis, rubella and measles in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Fifty-two consecutive RA patients being treated with 3 mg/kg infliximab were prospectively studied.

High frequency and diversity of rearrangements in polyomavirus bk noncoding regulatory regions cloned from urine and plasma of Israeli renal transplant patients and evidence for a new genetic subtype.

Polyomavirus BK (BKV) establishes latent infection in various human tissues, including the kidney. Reactivation following renal transplantation (RT) may cause BKV-associated nephropathy, leading to graft loss. BKV reactivation is often associated with extensive rearrangements in the BKV noncoding regulatory region (NCRR).

[Morbidity and the economic burden of influenza in children in Israel--a clinical, virologic and economic review].

Background: A survey of winter morbidity revealed a high incidence of childhood influenza. A clinical, virologic and economic survey of childhood influenza morbidity was conducted to characterize this morbidity.

Methods: Incidence of respiratory disease and influenza-like symptoms was determined among 9,300 children in the Tel Aviv area in the 1997-8 influenza season, and viral cultures performed from nasal swabs.

The effect of infliximab and timing of vaccination on the humoral response to influenza vaccination in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis.

Objectives: To assess the effect of the timing of vaccination in relation to administration of infliximab on the efficacy and safety of influenza vaccine in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS).

Methods: The study population comprised 38 patients treated with infliximab at a mean dosage of 3 mg/kg (20 RA patients; 18 AS patients; 23 RA controls (treated with disease modifying antirheumatic drugs other than anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha; and 17 healthy controls). Split-virion inactivated vaccine containing 15 mug hemagglutinin/dose of each of A/New Caledionan/20/1999 (H1N1), A/Wisconsin/67/2005 (H3N2), and B/Malaysia/2506/2004 (M) was used.

Characterization of large mumps outbreak among vaccinated Palestinian refugees.

During a large mumps virus (MuV) outbreak which occurred in the Palestinian refugee camps of the West Bank, 68.1% (2,636/3,871) of the cases were vaccinated with one dose of trivalent measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Attack rates by camp ranged from less than 1 case per 1,000 people in the population to 43/1,000 (overall, 11/1,000).

Smallpox revaccination of 21000 first responders in Israel: lessons learned.

Objectives: Between July 2002 and April 2003, over 21000 individuals were revaccinated against smallpox by the Israeli Ministry of Health. The objectives of the campaign were to create an immunized core of first responders, to review vaccination techniques, and to produce vaccinia immune globulin (VIG).

Methods: The Lister strain of vaccinia virus was used at a concentration of approximately 10(7) pock-forming units (PFU)/ml, and was administered by the multiple-puncture technique.

Adherence with oseltamivir chemoprophylaxis among workers exposed to poultry during avian influenza outbreaks in southern Israel.

Objectives: To determine adherence with recommended pre- and post-exposure oseltamivir prophylaxis (OP) among workers exposed to poultry during five simultaneous avian influenza (AI) H5N1 outbreaks in poultry farms in southern Israel in March 2006, as well as the efficiency of the distribution system of oseltamivir in the community.

Design: Epidemiological investigation identified 201 workers exposed to poultry during AI outbreaks. They were interviewed by a public health nurse regarding adherence with recommended OP, symptoms, and possible side effects.

Mosquito vectors of West Nile Fever in Israel.

West Nile fever (WNF) is endemic in Israel. In 1999, country-wide adult mosquito surveys were initiated and intensified after the 2000 country-wide outbreak of WNF in humans. In 8 consecutive yr, groups of male and female specimens of different species and from different locations were tested for infection with West Nile virus (WNV).

Atypical lobular hyperplasia and classic lobular carcinoma in situ in core biopsy specimens: routine excision is not necessary.

Standardized recommendations for the management of lobular neoplasia in core biopsy specimens are not established. The aim of our study was to define morphologic features of lobular neoplasia in core biopsies that predict the finding of ductal carcinoma in situ or invasive carcinoma in the subsequent excisional specimen. We reviewed 333 cases of atypical lobular hyperplasia or lobular carcinoma in situ without ductal carcinoma in situ or invasive carcinoma diagnosed in core biopsies from 1996 to 2006.

Rapid detection of blaKPC carbapenemase genes by real-time PCR.

Carbapenem resistance among Enterobacteriaceae is an emerging problem worldwide. Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (bla(KPC)) enzymes are among the most common beta-lactamases described. In this study, we report the development and validation of a real-time PCR (q-PCR) assay for the detection of bla(KPC) genes using TaqMan chemistry.

Combined screening with ultrasound and mammography vs mammography alone in women at elevated risk of breast cancer.

Context: Screening ultrasound may depict small, node-negative breast cancers not seen on mammography.

Objective: To compare the diagnostic yield, defined as the proportion of women with positive screen test results and positive reference standard, and performance of screening with ultrasound plus mammography vs mammography alone in women at elevated risk of breast cancer.

Design, Setting, And Participants: From April 2004 to February 2006, 2809 women, with at least heterogeneously dense breast tissue in at least 1 quadrant, were recruited from 21 sites to undergo mammographic and physician-performed ultrasonographic examinations in randomized order by a radiologist masked to the other examination results.