Removing Antibody and Preserving Glomeruli in ANCA Small-Vessel Vasculitis

Abstract

Welcome to the new JASN. This is the launch issue for a new editorial team, and all of us are honored to edit the finest kidney journal in the world. We accepted this exciting opportunity knowing Bill Couser and his associate editors have done a remarkable job in advancing the quality and substance of your journal during the past several years. We are grateful for their past leadership and recent guidance through our transition. They have left us big shoes to fill.Going forward, JASN is committed to publishing the very best work in renal science and clinical nephrology. Everything that we take for granted in kidney medicine today had its start somewhere in the laboratory, and as our science grows, so does the clinical success of the subspecialty. We instinctively believe this dynamic is an important value to preserve in the pages of your journal.JASN has built such a fine reputation that it now receives far more submissions than it can publish. This is both good and bad. At a final acceptance rate of less than 20%, we are able to offer really outstanding original contributions to our readers. Unfortunately, this also means the journal is unable to publish much of the great work coming from other laboratory and clinical investigators. The growing numbers of submissions also increases the pressure on our reviewers, and we must therefore return a larger fraction of our submissions without formal review, while at the same time working to expand our reviewer pool (you can help us by updating your keywords at the JASN submission site). We truly regret these difficulties.In planning our launch, we have added many new features to JASN to appeal to an ever-expanding readership. The journal has been redesigned inside and out, in print and online, which we hope will make the journal more appealing to browse and use. The cover has been updated, and we invite all members to submit interesting pictures as potential cover candidates. You can do this by going to the JASN submission site, choosing COVER as your manuscript type, and uploading your kidney-related image and figure legend. We hope that this collection of classic pictures will vividly represent the art in renal medicine.By shortening the page length of our articles, we will be able to publish a variety of new features in the front section of the journal. These include Brief Reviews, Occasional Observations, JASN Debates, Science in Renal Medicine, Pathophysiology of the Renal Biopsy, Clinical Commentaries, and Editorials. The Original Contributions section is divided into Basic Research, Clinical Epidemiology, and Clinical Research. These will feature the very best of both Regular Articles and Brief Communications, the latter in a new letter format.

Classification of antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody vasculitides: The role of antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody specificity for myeloperoxidase or proteinase 3 in disease recognition and prognosis

“…Various genes have been closely associated with ANCA vasculitis. 25,26 If the disease is genetically driven in a specific phenotypic direction, this might be influenced by the ANCA specificity. However, the extent to which any gene might influence the clinical phenotype of vasculitis, in what proportion of patients, and in any particular patient is not known.…”

Outcomes and Prognostic Factors in Patients with Rheumatologic Diseases Admitted to the ICU

“…On order to enhance the treatment efficacy, multiple cycles must be performed, typically daily or every other day, for one to two weeks. Rapid progressive glomerulonephritis (RPGN), pulmonary hemorrhage mediated by anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitides, Goodpasture syndrome, autoimmune hemolytic syndrome and hemolytic-uremic syndrome ( HUS ) / thrombotic-thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) are usually treated with plasma exchange (30). Nine patients (8%) in our cohort received plasma exchange therapy, a treatment that was found to be significantly associated with an in-creased mortality rate (p=0.014), supporting previous findings.…”

Outcomes of Elderly Patients with Anti-Neutrophil Cytoplasmic Autoantibody-Associated Vasculitis Treated with Immunosuppressive Therapy

“…The commonest infection affecting all age groups was pneumonia (community and hospital acquired) as in many other studies of AAV, with the highest rates occurring in the elderly [4,6,12,15,16]. Opportunistic infections constituted nearly a fifth of all infections.…”