BEI Resources: supporting antiviral research.

The Biodefense and Emerging Infections Research Resources Repository (BEI Resources) provides unique, quality-assured reagents to the scientific community for use in basic research and product development involving biodefense and emerging infectious diseases. These include microorganisms (up to Biosafety Level-3) on the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists of Category A, B and C priority pathogens. In addition to live microorganisms, related products such as polyclonal antisera, monoclonal antibodies, isolated nucleic acid preparations, overlapping peptide arrays, purified proteins, and assay kits are also available.

NIAID resources for developing new therapies for severe viral infections.

Severe viral infections, including hemorrhagic fever and encephalitis, occur throughout the world, but are most prevalent in developing areas that are most vulnerable to infectious diseases. Some of these can also infect related species as illustrated by the threatened extinction of gorillas by Ebola infection in west and central Africa. There are no safe and effective treatments available for these serious infections.

Computer-assisted mammography feedback program (CAMFP) an electronic tool for continuing medical education.

Rationale And Objectives: Our goal was to develop and evaluate software to support a computer assisted mammography feedback program (CAMFP) to be used for continuing medical education (CME).

Materials And Methods: Thirty-five radiologists from our region signed consent to participate in an institutional review board-approved film-reading study. The radiologists primarily assessed digitized mammograms and received feedback in five film interpretation sessions.

Use of the American College of Radiology BI-RADS guidelines by community radiologists: concordance of assessments and recommendations assigned to screening mammograms.

Objective: This study evaluated the use of the American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) by community radiologists by determining the concordance of assessment categories and recommendations assigned to screening mammograms.

Materials And Methods: The study comprised the interpretations of 82,620 consecutive screening mammograms by 18 radiologists between January 1, 1995, and December 31, 1998. For all mammograms, assessment categories and recommendations were compared to determine whether they were in accordance with BI-RADS guidelines.

Nuclear, biological, and chemical combined injuries and countermeasures on the battlefield.

The Armed Forces Radiobiological Research Institute (AFRRI) has developed a research program to determine the major health risks from exposure to ionizing radiation in combination with biological and chemical warfare agents and to assess the extent to which exposure to ionizing radiation compromises the effectiveness of protective drugs, vaccines, and other biological and chemical warfare prophylactic and treatment strategies. AFRRI's Defense Technology Objective MD22 supports the development of treatment modalities and studies to assess the mortality rates for combined injuries from exposure to ionizing radiation and Bacillus anthracis, and research to provide data for casualty prediction models that assess the health consequences of combined exposures. In conjunction with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, our research data are contributing to the development of casualty prediction models that estimate mortality and incapacitation in an environment of radiation exposure plus other weapons of mass destruction.

Susceptibility of irradiated mice to Bacillus anthracis sterne by the intratracheal route of infection.

The susceptibility of sublethally irradiated mice to pulmonary infection with Bacillus anthracis was investigated in a mouse model. Female B6D2F1/J mice were challenged intratracheally with 4.3 x 10(6), 3.