Contributed by Fatiu Arogundade
Senior Lecturer, Department of Medicine, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria
The ISN Young Nephrologists Committee (YNC), a committee charged with the responsibility of encouraging young nephrologists to join ISN and participate in its programs, rewarded young nephrologists and scientists that had the best abstracts accepted for presentation at the WCN 2009. The awards ceremony, which was the first of its kind, was held on Sunday, 24th May 2009 at WCN in Milan.
Four abstracts from young nephrologists were selected, 2 from developed countries and 2 from developing countries. The winners presented the details of their works during the awards ceremony. The winners and the titles of their studies included:
1. Juliette Hadchouel (Paris, France) – Inactivation of KS-WNK1 does not lead to hyperkalemic hypertension despite NCC overexpression.
2. Tory Kalman (Budapest, Hungary) – Missense mutations of Meckelin lead to nephronopthisis and hepatic fibrosis.
3. Masood Moghul (London, UK) - The relationship between GFR and age derived from 619 healthy prospective renal transplant donors.
4. Wei Chen (Guangdong, China) – A prospective randomized trial of treatment of active Lupus Nephritis with Tacrolimus Versus Cyclophosphamide / Azathioprine in Chinese Adults.
We congratulate all winners and encourage many more younger colleagues to submit papers during future congresses.
During the 4th plenary session Mr Dan Larson presented the objectives and achievements of the introduction of Jean Lilian Kaplan prize for advancement in the study of polycystic Kidney Disease and subsequently announced the winners for this congress. They include:
• Corinne Antignac (Paris, France) – Nephrotoxins and epithelial cell polarity
• Friedhelm Hildebrant (Ann Arbor, USA) – Cilia and centrosomes explain dysplasia and degeneration in nephronopthisis – like cystic kidney disease.
• Lisa M Guay-Woodford (Birmingham, USA) – Autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease: from the clinic to the cilium.
The session was rounded off with an astounding and stimulating lecture by 2007 Novel prize winner Oliver Smithies (Chapel Hill, USA), who traced his sixty years of research from the days of using gels to the modern day genetic mapping.
Sarala Naicker (Johannesburg, South Africa) won this year’s Roscoe Robinson Award for excellence in nephrology education and training. This was announced by Bill Couser during the fourth plenary session of the WCN 2009. In accepting the award, which she dedicated to all renal patients, she paid glowing tributes to ISN and her mentors. She also appreciated all her colleagues and research collaborators. We congratulate Sarala on her well deserved award.
The immediate past Treasurer of ISN, Dr Steve Hebert who died last year was remembered during the WCN 2009. A plenary session was held in his honor, during which Dr Kari Alitalo from Helsinki, Finland presented the latest research efforts and landmarks in lymphangiogenesis in development and disease. He showed the role of VEGF and its various sub units in lymphangiogenesis and the usefulness of blockage of its receptors particularly VEGFR 2 and 3 in preventing lymphangiogenesis which could be clinically useful in preventing tumor spread.
The clinical applications of this research efforts are however still being awaited.
Here are the results for the ISN Council elections, as announced today at the General Assembly:
Africa
Maher Fouad Ramzy (Egypt)
Asia Pacific – North Asia
Suhnggwon Kim (Republic of Korea)
Asia Pacific – East Asia
Chih-Wei Yang (China, Taiwan)
Asia Pacific – Australia New Zealand & Polynesia
Peter Kerr (Australia)
North America – USA
Roland Blantz (USA)
Allison Eddy (USA)
North America – Canada
Marcello Tonelli (Canada)
Europe – Continental Europe
Dick de Zeeuw (The Netherlands)
Kai-Uwe Eckardt (Germany)
Europe – UK & Ireland
Meguid El Nahas (UK)
Europe – Mediterranean Europe
Jorge Cannata-Andía (Spain)
Europe – Eastern Europe
Laszlo Rosivall (Hungary)
Latin America
Sergio A. Mezzano (Chile)
Contributed by Fatiu Arogundade
Senior Lecturer, Department of Medicine, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria
Prof Schindler exposed the problems inherent in using Kt/Vurea for assessing dialysis adequacy. He presented data that showed that the kinetic behaviour of urea differs from that of other small molecular solutes despite the fact that their dialysis from plasma is comparable. He also showed that both Kt and V independently influence survival in dialysis and hence combining both in determining Kt/V could lead to confused interpretation.
The problems associated with determination of V particularly using Watson formula, which could lead to erroneous Kt/V was also stressed. He concluded by suggesting that the way small molecular substances are used to assess dialysis may need to be changed? Possibly the denominator may become body surface area, body weight etc. This calls for controlled studies but old data may need to be reanalyzed to determine the usefulness of his suggestion.
Contributed by Fatiu Arogundade
Senior Lecturer, Department of Medicine, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria
The Interventional Nephrology Committee organized continuous medical education during this WCN.
The sessions take place in MIC level 2, White Room 2, between 16:30 Hrs to 18:30 Hrs daily. They give participants an opportunity to practice some of these procedures. The renal ultrasound module and peritoneal catheter insertion module have been concluded. You could benefit from the vascular access module and endovascular procedure module that holds on Sunday, 24th May 2009 and Monday, 25th May 2009 respectively. Try and be there.
Today was the last day to vote for ISN Councillors, representing all world regions. The percentage of voting members has been the highest since a very long time: 26:43% of the members have voted (approximately 2500 members), more than the double of past elections. Elected councillors will be announced tomorrow morning at 7am at the General Assembly. Check back here for the results.
Today at 15:30 the ISN Council has voted for the election of the new President Elect. We are pleased to announce the choice of John Feehally (currently Secretary General). Please join us in congratulating John and in wishing him all the best in his new role.
