Medical Evaluation Board for Mental Health Condition: U.S. Army Officer Medical Evaluation Board Data by Branch and Component.

Objective: A retrospective review of Medical Evaluation Board (MEB) data to determine the effect of career field or Army component on the relative risk for mental health (MH) related MEBs among Army Officers, may identify specific populations for enhanced screening before accession, or groups that may require targeted preventive resources during their careers.

Method: 4 years' of data available on Army Officers from the Department of the Army's Electronic Disability Evaluation System database, contained specific information on the officers' physical profiles, career fields, and service component. This information was compared with a dataset provided by the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC), reporting documented force strength by career field and service component for the corresponding years, allowing for calculation and comparison of MEB and MH-MEB rates between Army components and between career fields.

Effect of compound plate composition on measurement of hERG current IC(50) using PatchXpress.

Inhibition of the human ether-a-go-go-related gene (hERG) potassium channel by pharmaceutical agents can lead to acquired long QT syndrome and the generation of potentially lethal arrhythmias. Higher throughput automated patch clamp systems, such as PatchXpress, can greatly increase the speed and capacity of evaluation of pharmaceutical compounds for hERG blocking activity. A factor that may affect the IC(50) value of a compound measured in this system is the composition of the multi-well compound plate.

Effects of octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4) on the luteinizing hormone (LH) surge and levels of various reproductive hormones in female Sprague-Dawley rats.

The objectives of this study were to assess the potential for D(4) to suppress the pre-ovulatory lutenizing hormone (LH) surge, to block or delay ovulation, and to evaluate potential effects on reproductive hormones in rats. Female Sprague-Dawley Crl:CD (SD) IGS BR rats received whole-body vapor inhalation exposure to D(4) (0, 700, or 900ppm) 6h per day for 3 days. Trunk blood obtained on proestrus at 10a.

Chlorosilane acute inhalation toxicity and development of an LC50 prediction model.

The acute inhalation toxicity of 10 chlorosilanes was investigated in Fischer 344 rats using a 1-h whole-body vapor inhalation exposure and a 14-day recovery period. The median lethal concentration (LC50(1)) for each material was calculated from the nominal exposure concentrations and mortality. Experimentally derived LC50(1) values for monochlorosilanes (4257-4478 ppm) were greater than those for dichlorosilanes (1785-2092 ppm), which were greater than those for trichlorosilanes (1257-1611 ppm).

Evaluation of the rubidium efflux assay for preclinical identification of HERG blockade.

Inhibition of the delayed-rectifier potassium channel current, human ether-a-go-go (hERG), by pharmaceutical agents can lead to acquired long QT syndrome and the generation of potentially lethal arrhythmias and sudden death. There remains an unmet need for higher-throughput assays to screen compounds in preclinical development for the potential to block hERG and cause QT prolongation. We evaluated the rubidium efflux assay for its ability to determine block of the hERG potassium channel.

A multiple in silico program approach for the prediction of mutagenicity from chemical structure.

We have conducted an evaluation of three of the most widely used commercial toxicity prediction programs, Toxicity Prediction by Komputer Assisted Technology (TOPKAT), Deductive Estimation of Risk from Existing Knowledge (DEREK) for Windows (DfW) and CASETOX. The three programs were evaluated for their ability to predict Ames test mutagenicity using 520 proprietary drug candidate (Test set 1) and 94 commercial (Test set 2) compounds. The study demonstrates that these three commercially available programs are useful, with limitations in their ability to predict mutagenicity over a wide range of chemical space, i.