Past events
XIV International Congress of the Polish Society of Nuclear Medicine in Lublin
The XIV International Congress of the Polish Society of Nuclear Medicine was held in Lublin on 28–30th May 2014. The management of organization of this Congress was a big honor for the Chair and Department of Nuclear Medicine, Medical University of Lublin. Targi Lublin, a trade fair-exhibition center in Lublin was the Congress Venue, where also both Opening and Closing Ceremony took place.
The prominent scientists from home and abroad were presented their lectures during our Congress. Our invitation was accepted by Professors: Sonia Balogowa from Comenius University in Bratislava, John Buscombe from Cambridge University, Anna Celler from University of British Columbia & Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, Arthuro Chiti, President Elect of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine from Instituto Clinico Humanitas in Milano, Eyal Mishaani from Hadassah Hebrew University, Einat Even Sapir from Tel Aviv University, Reimier Slart from University of Groningen, Marica Bajc from University Hospital in Lund and Professor Maciej Pech from Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg. Among the foreign guests was also a large group of doctors from Belarus, along with a representative of the Belarusian Ministry of Health. A very nice touch was a reminder of 25th anniversary of the rebirth of Poland’s democracy, recalled by Professor John Buscombe in the introduction to his lecture.
In pre-congress symposium, very important session “New knowledge in nuclear medicine” was held, which was prepared by the Team of Nuclear Medicine Committee of Medical Physics, Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging, Polish Academy of Sciences. As part of the development of competence in the field of multimodality, computed tomography workshops were organized that gained great attendance.
Remarkably significant was the mini-workshop on the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism, which was led by Professor Marica Bajc, an expert in pulmonary embolism and author of algorithms for the evaluation and handling a pulmonary embolism.
The session “PET in oncology” brought into the light a problem of cancer of unknown primary, which was presented by Professor Sona Balogowa. PET in oncology behind the FDG was introduced by Professor Arturo Chiti, who discussed the use of choline, amino acids and fluorine. Professor Einat Even Sapir-Weizer raised very current topic: “PET tracers for assessment of bone metastases”. Finally in this session, professor Leszek Królicki presented PERCIST and RECIST criteria. Then in cardiovascular session, professor Eyal Michani spoke about the next generation of PET MPI agents, while Professor John Buscombe underlined the utility of PET for investigating cardiovascular inflammation. Professor Mirosław Dziuk announced future trends in PET/CT imaging in cardiology, and Doctor Małgorzata Kobylecka focused on difficult cases in cardiology. Among other notable and very remarkable topics, radionuclide therapy session has to be mentioned. In this theme following issues were presented: radionuclide therapy with somatostatin analogues, alternative methods of the treatment of brain tumors and liver metastases radioembolization. Pediatric session with always current topic — renoscintigraphy in children — was complemented by an interactive session. In this session, pediatric Polish experience with radionuclide diagnosis of complications after liver transplantation in children and the diagnosis of PET/CT in children were also presented.
During the session “The Best Paper of Nuclear Medicine Review” the awarded works were presented. The best abstract was “Assessment of the adrenergic system in cardiac arrhythmias and end-stage renal failure” from Lublin.
Great attention was attracted by session with invited specialists from other fields of medicine, where the expectations and the fruits of cooperation with nuclear medicine centers were stated. Professor Elizabeth Starosławska, raised the oncologist expectations in relation to nuclear medicine, prof. Beata Kos-Kudla established the location of the receptor scintigraphy in the algorithm in GEP-NET proceedings. Professor Maciej Pech showed interventional radiologists expectations in collaboration with nuclear medicine. Subsequently, presentations were held by the three eminent oncological surgeons: Professor Wojciech Polkowski talked about cooperation of oncological surgeons with nuclear medicine physicians in the treatment of solid tumors; Professor Wojciech Zegarski raised the issue of the PET-CT in gastric cancer and colon cancer, and Professor Zbigniew Nowecki raised the issue of progress in the sentinel node biopsy.
During the closing ceremony the Polish Society of Nuclear Medicine awarded the Honorary Membership to the distinguished Professors and nuclear medicine pioneers: Professor Eugeniusz Dziuk, Professor Izabella Kozłowicz-Gudzińska, Professor Zbigniew Maziarz, Zbigniew Pawłowicz MD, PhD, Professor Franciszek Rogowski, Professor Jerzy Sowiński, Eugeniusz Żmuda MD, PhD.
In total, during the Congress over 40 lectures led by experts from home and abroad took place. Additionally, the results of scientific studies were presented in 64 oral and 36 posters presentations. The XIV Congress of the Polish Society of Nuclear Medicine gave the participants the opportunity to exchange clinical experiences and provided the occasion to get knowledge on the latest developments in nuclear medicine. I hope that the Congress was also a chance to break away from everyday life. Although the weather was consistently bad, the Congress was very well received by participants and organizers gathered numerous compliments.
Beata E. Chrapko
The XIV Congress of Polish Society of Nuclear Medicine
Organizing Committee President
