Researchers Discuss New Approaches against Diseases
The opening ceremony of the 6th Asia and Oceania Congress of Nuclear Medicine and Biology was held on Oct. 1, 1996 at the Kyoto International Conference Hall in Takaragaike, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, with welcoming and congratulatory messages delivered by officials of international organizations and local governments. The congress, being held until Oct. 4 in conjunction with the 36th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine, is being attended by approximately 1,500 people from 41 countries.
The five-day congress held on the centennial of the discovery of radioactivity by A. H. Becquerel brings together researchers, physicians, engineers and others involved in nuclear medicine not just from the Asia-Pacific region but also from countries around the world to discuss new approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of a wide variety of diseases using radioactivity.
Kanji Torizuka, president of the Asia and Oceania Federation of Nuclear Medicine and Biology and congress chairman, formally opened the conference with a welcoming address and by ringing the Congress Bell six times - a custom that began at the initial Asia and Oceania Congress in Sydney and that has been carried on as a symbol of continuity. Congratulatory messages were delivered by Syuichi Tani, director general of the Health and Welfare Ministry's Health Policy Bureau, who cited the significance of the meeting in Kyoto for research in the 21st century. Messages from Gov. Teiichi Aramaki of Kyoto Prefecture and Kyoto Mayor Yorikane Masumoto were read by proxies. Gopinathan G. Nair, head of the Nuclear Medicine Section at the International Atomic Energy Agency - a co-sponsor of the congress - mentioned that his organization shares the commitment to the peaceful application of nuclear energy in the service of human health. He identified three fronts on which progress will need to be made in marching forward to the next century, namely, reducing the cost of nuclear medicine products and services, sustaining quality to make it more competitive, demonstrating appropriateness, emerging as a complementary and competing modality of investigation. Hans Biersack, president of the World Federation of Nuclear Medicine and Biology stressed the importance of closer coordination among the various regional nuclear medicine federations and noted the great inroads nuclear medicine is making in the Asia-Oceania region.
Chance for Further Advancement
By Kanji Torizuka, M. D., President of the Organizing Committee
In 1967, the historic document known as the Pisa Declaration responded to the rapid progress in basic and applied nuclear medicine by highlighting the need for an agency to promote collaboration among the world's many societies of nuclear medicine. In response, the Asia and Oceania Federation of Nuclear Medicine and Biology was inaugurated provisionally in October 1969 in Tokyo at a gathering of 21 delegations from the nine member countries and regions. The Second assembly of the Asia and Oceania Federation was held in Tokyo in 1974 during the First Congress of the World Federation. Thereafter, the First Asia and Oceania Congress of Nuclear Medicine and Biology was held successfully in Sydney in September 1976. This was followed by further successful congresses in Manila in 1980. Seoul in 1984, Taipei in 1988 and Jakarta in 1992.
Today, we are gathering here in Kyoto for the 6th Congress. To mark this auspicious occasion, the 36th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine will take place concurrently here in Kyoto. Over the past two decades, the field of nuclear medicine has grown and changed dramatically. The Congress will thus provide an excellent opportunity for all who share an interest in nuclear medicine to review the rapid advances in the field while exchanging views on the teaching, practice, and future directions of this field. I am confident that the 1996 Kyoto Congress will stand as a scientifically significant achievement relevant to all areas of nuclear medicine in the district of Asia and Oceania.
Medical Sciences in 21st Century
By Dr. Hiroo Imura, President of Kyoto University
Because of the rapid economic development in the Asia-Pacific region, some people say that the twenty-first century will be the century of Asia and Oceania. I believe that the next century will also be one of life science, particularly medical science. Although a great variety of fields are expected to develop in the century to come, there are certain areas I believe are particularly important. Infectious diseases, which decreased dramatically over the past decade due to progress in public health, vaccination, and antibiotics, may become one of the major health care problems of the next century, as new infections emerge and old ones reemerge. Immunology, thus, will continue to attract researchers. Studies on genetic diseases, especially, monogenic diseases, have made great progress over the past decade due to improved methods of identifying disease genes and studying genetic abnormally even with a small sampling. Diagnoses and treatment, especially gene therapy, will be an important area in the next century. Exploring the mechanism of aging and age-related degenerative diseases will also be crucial with the graying of the population. These diseases are often caused by an interaction between genetic predisposition and environmental factors. In spite of recent progress in the research of oncogenes and antioncogenes, the pathogenesis of cancer has not been completely understood, and its treatment has hot been established. Cancer will continue to be a challenging area in the future. In Asian countries we expect degenerative diseases to increase in the next century due to rapid acculturation. As medical scientists, our task is to identify genes that are responsible for diabetes, obesity, hypertension, arteriosclerosis. We also have to identify the environmental factors that interact with genes to develop diseases. In clinical practice, we must set up methods for genetic screening of high-risk groups and for early diagnosis of arteriosclerosis and other degenerative diseases. Nuclear medicine is very important in these diagnosis procedures. Changing lifestyle will be imperative to reducing the development of diseases.
Cost-effective Medical Option
By Henry Wagner, Professor of radiation health sciences at John Hopkins University
Nuclear medicine is an expanding and increasingly promising discipline that allows physicians and researchers to pinpoint specific areas of abnormality in human cells, says Henry Wagner, professor of radiation health sciences at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, the United States. The use of radioactivity to diagnose ailments grew into a full-fledged discipline shortly after World war II. Since then, the range of applications has spread from endocrinological diagnosis of thyroid disorders to detection of lung and heart ailments, brain dysfunctions, and most recently, the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. By using radioactive isotopes with short half-lives, the particular part of the body with functional abnormalities can be isolated. While equipment and services for nuclear medicine are perceived as being expensive, Wagner claims it can actually save money by giving physicians much more information about the patient - what kind of treatment would be most effective and facilitating decisions on whether surgery is really needed. Advances in nuclear medicine are expected to be particularly helpful in the early detection of Alzheimer's disease, the symptoms of which may not appear long after a person is found to be carrying abnormal genes that places them in the high-risk group.
Nuclear Medicine to Play Bigger Role
By Dr. Junji Konishi, Secretary-general of the organizing committee
Nuclear Medicine is spreading steadily through the Asia-Oceania region, thanks to advances that facilitate its adaptation in the region, and it is expected to play an even bigger role in the twenty-first century. The 6 th Asia and Oceania Congress of Nuclear Medicine and Biology in Kyoto is providing valuable impetus to this trend, says Dr. Junji Konishi, secretary-general of the organizing committee and professor of nuclear medicine at Kyoto University, by encouraging the implementation of the latest breakthroughs in radiological instruments, radio pharmaceuticals, and the detection and treatment of medical disorders. The rise in regional interest is corroborated by the growing list of member countries in the Asia and Oceania Federation. Dr. Konishi says; having started with just six countries, the Federation now has 20 members participating in the conference, and 2 more are applying to become members. The Kyoto Conference also features more abstracts and participants than any of the five previous meetings. The Asia and Oceania Congress is a valuable forum that gives participants an opportunity to focus on those concerns that are unique to the region. Many of the most important ones, Dr. Konishi says, have been selected for debate at the three panel discussions.
Interview with Top Researchers
Some of the leading researchers in the highly electric discipline that is nuclear medicine offered their views on where the most exciting developments are taking place. They all agreed that new technological advances are making the detection of bodily disorders much easier and expected nuclear medicine to have increasingly wider applications in the years to come.
Prof, Gopal Subramanian
Gopal Subramanian, Indian-born U. S. professor of radiology in the Division of Nuclear Medicine at the SUNY Health science Cancer in Syracuse, U. S. A. said exciting new radioisotopes are now being explored that permit detailed imaging approximating positron emission tomography (PET) with traditional SPECT (single-photon emission tomography) equipment. He also said that the Asia and Oceania Congress is a vital forum for the exchange of information, considering the major contributions researchers from the region have made to be advancement of the discipline.
Prof, Lee Myung-chul
Professor and chairman of the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the Seoul National University Hospital in South Korea, Lee Myung-chul declared that a new era of brain imaging was dawning with the latest developments in PET technology. While X-rays and MRI merely showed anatomical changes, nuclear medicine allowed the pinpointing of functional changes. Having tested 400 patients in 18 months , Lee claims that his hospital was able to accurately localize 85 percent to 90 percent of the infarctions that led to epilepsy and other disorders.
Prof, Xiu-Jie Liu
Xiu-Jie Liu, a professor of nuclear medicine at the Cardiovascular Institute and Fu Wai Hospital in Beijing, China, indicated that coronary diseases were increasingly in China due to changes in diet, less exercise, and greater stress. The no invasive techniques, nuclear medicine provides, he said, help identify sensitivity to sclerosis even in patients under the age of 45. Issues to be addressed, he said, were the provision of low-cost equipment, development of radio pharmaceuticals, and training of people to carry out highly sophisticated testing techniques.
Director J. Harvey Turner
Director of nuclear medicine at the University of Western Australia, J. Harvey Turner said that one of the fastest -growing applications of nuclear medicine was in the treatment, not just diagnosis, of cancer. While he said there was still some resistance in Japan to the therapeutic uses of nuclear medicine due to the high dosages required, regional groups are forming to hold round-table discussions and collaborate on trial treatments.
Director Eiichi Tanaka
Eiichi Tanaka, director of Hamamatsu Photonics, which manufactures PET and SPECT scanners, says that PET scanners have made much progress with the continuing improvement of imaging devices and advance of data-processing technology. He said that a new detector material called LSO is now being developed that is expected to bring dramatic improvements in the performance of PET scanners.
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