Dr. Kang, et al reply

Abstract

We thank Dr. Rothschild for his interest 1 in our article 2 on the incidence of arterial and venous thrombosis in antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodyassociated vasculitis (AAV). He raises the interesting issue of susceptibility to both arterial and venous thrombotic events, which is also characteristic of antiphospholipid syndrome. The question arises as to the possible role of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) in the thrombotic events seen in AAV. We also thought that this possibility should be examined, but unfortunately our data on aPL are limited, because we studied a retrospective cohort in which these tests were not routinely performed. In fact, we tested for anticardiolipin IgG and IgM in only 49 of the 210 patients in the study. We found positive results in 3 patients, none of whom were in the group with thrombosis 2. In the patients who had a thrombosis, we found negative results in 4 out of the 24 who had an arterial thrombosis, and 5 out of 14 who had a venous thrombosis. These findings were not reported in the original paper because of the low proportion of patients tested and because they were tested only at baseline. It is possible that some patients may have developed aPL during the course of their disease, which could have gone undetected. Even in the absence of aPL, the high incidence of arterial and venous thrombosis in patients with AAV should encourage us to consider the relative benefits and risks of antiplatelet agents or anticoagulants, as discussed by Rothschild 1 .

Ischemia-Triggered Glutamate Excitotoxicity From the Perspective of Glial Cells

“…However, ATP also acts as a modulator, since glutamate released during neuronal activity can activate non-NMDA receptors on astrocytes, which triggers the release of ATP (Zhang et al, 2003). This molecule is released from astrocytes predominantly through connexin 43 hemichannels (Cx43; Kang et al, 2008) and suppresses glutamatergic synapses through presynaptic P2Y receptors (Zhang et al, 2003) or synaptic P2X receptors (Lalo et al, 2016). Here, astrocytes and astrocytic ATP perform as saviors of the CNS, while a similar function has been attributed also to adenosine, which is a product of ATP, released also by glial cells (Zhang et al, 2003).…”

Observatory science with eXTP

“…Therefore, monitoring of the sky is required to catch these events. The LAD, thanks to its timing capability, will allow one to detect the X-ray counterpart of the very fast variability observed at TeV energies for 2-10 keV fluxes above 2 × 10 −11 erg s −1 cm −2 , shedding light on the nature of the X-TeV connection in HBLs (Kang et al, 2012). Moreover, eXTP polarimetric measurements of HBLs will constrain the nature of the electron population(s) responsible for the X-ray emission, providing us with the magnetic field orientation and its change during the flaring activity as compared with the average emission.…”

Irinotecan monotherapy as third-line or later treatment in advanced gastric cancer

“…The standard initial chemotherapy for AGC is combination chemotherapy involving fluoropyrimidine and platinum, which achieved median progression-free survival (PFS) of 6 months and median overall survival (OS) of 11 months [3][4][5][6]. HER2-positive AGC patients are treated with the above doublet chemotherapy plus trastuzumab, and median OS has been reported to be 13 months [7].…”