HD 181068: a red giant in a triply eclipsing compact hierarchical triple system.

Hierarchical triple systems comprise a close binary and a more distant component. They are important for testing theories of star formation and of stellar evolution in the presence of nearby companions. We obtained 218 days of Kepler photometry of HD 181068 (magnitude of 7.1), supplemented by ground-based spectroscopy and interferometry, which show it to be a hierarchical triple with two types of mutual eclipses. The primary is a red giant that is in a 45-day orbit with a pair of red dwarfs in a close 0.9-day orbit. The red giant shows evidence for tidally induced oscillations that are driven by the orbital motion of the close pair. HD 181068 is an ideal target for studies of dynamical evolution and testing tidal friction theories in hierarchical triple systems.

[Primary central nervous system lymphomas]. / Primární lymfomy tentrálního nervového systému.

Primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) is a rare form of extranodal lymphoma (nearly always non-Hodgkin's) and accounts for approximately 3 to 4% of primary brain tumors. PCNSL typically affects patients older than 60 years. Clinical features are variable and reflect the location of central nervous system lesion. Magnetic resonance imaging and stereotactic biopsy are the most important tools for diagnostic assessment. Chemotherapy based on high-dose of methotrexate (HD-MTX) and whole brain radiotherapy are the cornerstones of treatment. Radiotherapy is usually omitted in individuals older than 60 years because of high risk of unacceptable delayed neurotoxicity. Treatment of PCNSL should be started as soon as possible after diagnosis because delay in treatment may shorten the patients' survival.

Angiopoietin-2 mRNA expression is increased in chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients with poor prognostic features.

Several studies have demonstrated the potential prognostic importance of angiogenesis in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Elevated expression of angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2), an angiogenic cytokine, was recently reported in CLL. However, data regarding prognostic significance of Ang-2 in CLL are limited. Therefore, we quantitated Ang-2 mRNA in purified mononuclear cells of 33 untreated CLL patients and compared the transcript levels to traditional as well as modern prognostic factors in patients with CLL (clinical stage, disease course, IgVH mutation status, CD38, and ZAP-70 expression). Elevated Ang-2 mRNA concentrations were detected in 12 cases; 21 patients had very low or undetectable levels of Ang-2 transcript. There was significant association between high Ang-2 mRNA levels and unmutated IgVH genes (n=27, P=0.010) and with CD38 expression (n=32, P=0.011), but not with ZAP-70 expression (n=32, P=0.784), Rai stage (n=33, P=0.305) or stable versus progressive clinical course (n=33, P=0.443). There was a trend towards shorter progression-free survival in patients with high Ang-2 expression; however, it did not reach statistical significance (P=0.090). Our pilot data show that Ang-2 mRNA is differentially expressed in patients with CLL and its increased expression appears to be associated with poor prognostic features. Further studies are needed to confirm the results in a larger patient cohort.