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The Naval Medical Research Institute (NMRI), located in a complex of buildings at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, is the Navy’s largest biomedical research facility. Commissioned in 1942, the Institute was immediately committed to the solution of practical medical problems arising from World War II. While its staff, physical plant, and program scope have grown considerably, its mission continues to be basic and applied research and development concerned with the health, safety, and efficiency of naval personnel. The Institute’s present-day staff comprises some 275 men and women; this includes naval officers in the Medical, Dental, and Medical Service Corps, and a core of career civil service scientists, specialists in various fields, who ensure a continuity in the research program. The present program of the Institute encompasses three main areas: clinical support, disease prevention, and adaptation of men to new weapons systems. The major efforts in clinical support involve experimental surgery, experimental medicine, and experimental dentistry, all involving the development of new techniques, applications, and concepts for the treatment of naval casualties. Experimental surgery is focused on problems of vascular physiology of major importance in military medicine. Work in isolated organ perfusion looks toward the development of successful organ transplantation, which has a direct bearing on treatment of combat injuries when there has been irreparable damage to vital organs. Although these studies involve animals, the same care is taken as would be in an operation on a human being; identical aseptic techniques, careful preoperative and post-operative care, and anesthesia are used. During the kidney transplant at right, a special computer records cardiac output, and other vital functions are recorded on a polygraph.
Photography by Robert de Cast
Text by Commander Dominic J. Deriso, MSC, U. S.
Clinical projects concerned with normal and abnormal teeth, bone, and saliva are under investigation in the Dental Research Department. In one typical experiment, seen above, salivary gland fluid is collected by a unique device placed over a salivary gland orifice, as the researcher seeks to determine how the natural protective qualities of this fluid may be improved for the prevention of gum disease. At right, a dental technician performs dental work on an anesthetized caries-susceptible rat, in part of a program of study on the healing mechanisms of the tooth, and on the suitability of dental materials used in the treatment of caries.
any of NMRI’s experimental clinical developments find immediate application in clinical trials at the Naval Hospital, Bethesda. Some clin- ■cal facilities, such as the Pathology Division’s electron microscope, How, are used in collaboration with members of the Naval Hospital. Photograph from the microscope—a 16,300-diameter enlargement of . nieningopneumonitis agent—is seen at lower right. Other experiments, 'deluding investigations into the effects of laser beams on the retina, at ’Sht, are important, but may have less immediate significance.
For centuries, infectious diseases have been a major cause of casualties during military operations. The global scope of today’s naval activities requires knowledge of the causes, treatment, and preventive measures for both common and exotic communicable and environmental diseases of the world. Schistosomiasis, a disease transmitted through snails, and mosquito-transmitted diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, dengue, and filariasis, are examples of such diseases. In the photograph below, mosquitoes feed on a malaria-infected fowl. The malarial parasites will undergo development in the mosquitoes, and the effect of environmental temperature upon the growth of the parasites will be observed.
The Microbiology Department has underway a vigorous research program in the control and prevention of meningococcic meningitis, in response to an increased incidence of this disease at recruit training activities. Specimens sent in from patients at Navy, Marine Corps, and Army training centers are subjected to various tests in a specially designed, sealed "hot-lab” at the Institute.
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Technical progress continues to create a demand for information which will enable men to operate effectively in new weapons systems; progress in engineering and electronics requires a collateral research effort in human adaptation. A large proportion of NMRI’s studies are directed to meet this need. In the Vibration Laboratory, below, measurements of human tolerance to low frequency vibration are made during research on the protection of personnel against vibration-induced injuries in helicopters, low-level attack aircraft, and hydrofoil ships. High speed x-ray motion pictures are taken to record the motion of the subject’s internal organs during the vibration tests.
This area of NMRI research has also included the development ° telemetering and microcalorimetry devices used in the nation’s manne space flight program, radiation tolerance studies relating to the man' ning of nuclear ships, and studies of oxygen requirements and toxical having application in submarine operations. At the upper right, a vol°0' teer test subject is briefed prior to entering one of the Institute’s “deeP isolation” laboratories. These facilities are used in seeking answers t0 the problems facing small groups working under isolated conditio05’ and the studies relate directly to prolonged submerged submari°e cruises. A complex array of electronic equipment, including television)15 employed in controlling subject-environmental conditions, and in nto° 100 itoring responses and task performances.
ncreased emphasis is being placed on the problem of survival at sea. Ufrently under evaluation at NMRI are a "wet” suit for use as a survival Garment by helicopter crews and a heated suit for underwater swimmers, uysiological effects of immersion are observed in a 20,000-gallon tank, water temperatures varying from 75° F down to 28.5° F. At left, wires fading from the subject during a suit evaluation test permit monitoring . heart rate and body temperature at 17 different points. Samples of ex- t’O'ed air are also periodically taken and analyzed. Above, a subject ®Herges from the tank after two hours of immersion in 40° F water. n a related NMRI development, at right, underwater contact lenses, evtsed to replace the swimmer’s bulky face mask, are being evaluated °r use by Underwater Demolition Teams.
Basic studies on the physiologic effects of hyperbaric pressures are conducted in NMRI’s pressure chamber, below, for both the deep submergence systems program and the "Man-in-the-Sea” project. At left, a volunteer equalizes the pressure between his middle and outer ear chambers to prevent the rupture of his ear drums, during a pressure test simulating a dive to 200 feet. As in this case, all men serving as test subjects at the Institute are volunteers, usually being personnel in some way involved in the same or in related areas of research.
The Institute’s low pressure chamber has a broad range of applications in both basic research and the development of new systems. At upper right, an environmental stress subject is being weighed underwater during a rapid ascent to the simulated altitude of 18,000 feet, to determine his increased buoyancy due to the reduced barometric pressure. This measured weight loss will be used as a factor in the determination of air-free body weight, or specific gravity. Because of the short time that the chamber is kept at a reduced pressure, the personnel do not require oxygen masks. In another low pressure experiment, a subject, at right, is undergoing the self-mapping of the size of his visual field while he is under the effects of hypoxia. This study is of operational importance in determining the significance of the loss in visual fields at altitudes for aviation personnel and others working in or transiting through areas of reduced partial pressure. .
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Unique devices have been developed for the study of the mechanisms that maintain the balance of energy in the human body, and for evaluation of thermal stress and measures to protect man against it. A microcalorimeter, one of the sensitive measuring devices pioneered and developed by NMRI’s Director of Bioenergerics, is seen at left. This instrument is capable of measuring heat in quantities as minute as 1/1,000 of a calorie, and temperature changes as low as 1/1,000,000 of a degree Centigrade. The Human Gradient Calorimeter, at right, measures the heat loss from the human body—information useful in determining the caloric requirement of the body in various environmental and work conditions. This device was used in the biomedical testing program of the "first generation” astronauts. The development of a clinical ear thermometer, below, has provided a more accurate and quicker measurement of body temperature, due to the sensor’s proximity to the body’s "thermostat,” the hypothalamus.
FIELD EXTENSIONS OF NMRI RESEARCH
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