Meeting Hall and At Humayun's tomb
Birla Mandir and Qutub Minar
I attended the 9th AOCNMB 2008 congress meeting held from October 31st to November 4th at New Delhi, the capital city of India. The congress was held at The Ashok hotel situated in the center of the city and mainly surrounded by diplomatic buildings and embassies.
The theme of the congress was chosen as “Globalization of Nuclear Medicine” highlighting the importance of increasing interconnectedness of the nuclear medicine professionals in the world. Although several eminent senior experts from home and abroad attended the congress, the younger professionals however, especially from abroad were fewer in number with some missing even for their oral presentations. Generally the congress provided an adequate platform to meet and interact with the delegates from all over the world, especially from Asia.
The congress began on Oct 31st with categorical seminar sessions focusing on topics such as nuclear cardiology, trends in radiopharmaceuticals and CT for nuclear medicine physicians. The session on trends in radiopharmaceuticals covered the basics from development of conventional or novel PET radiopharmaceuticals to application and dosimetry in in vivo models. The Sn-117m based radiopharmaceutical application for therapy was discussed by Dr. S. Srivastava of Brookhaven National Lab and showed some initial promising results in alleviation of pain from metastatic bone cancer, treatment of primary and metastatic bone cancer and as a skeletal imaging agent. It was interesting to note that Sn-117m could also be used for imaging and treatment of vulnerable atheromatous plaques and also for combined gene/radioisotopic therapy using recombinant adenoviral vectors. However, significant improvement in efficient production of Sn-117m labeled stannic chelates is still needed.
The formal inauguration ceremony was conducted on the evening of Oct 31st. I was delighted to see Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, a distinguished scientist and former president of India as chief guest. In his brief talk, he stressed the importance of bringing various scientific disciplines in unison to rid off the diseases presenting at various stages. He mentioned the pursuit of nuclear medicine or nano medicine technologies should pave the way for next-generation diagnosis or treatment options.
From the next day, the seminar sessions were organized as plenary talks, invited speaker talks and free paper (oral/poster) sessions. Although most of the sessions covered advances on conventional nuclear medicine, some of them highlighted the importance of modalities like PET-CT (still an emerging modality in India) in clinical diagnosis and treatment monitoring. Some of the interesting talks came from speakers of abroad. The PET neuroimaging probes were discussed by Dr. Joseph Mantil of Kettering Medical Center in which updates of FDG PET-CT application in dementia, seizures and glioma differentiation were mentioned. In addition 18F-FDDNP for amyloid plaques and 11C-methionine for low-grade glioma differentiation were also discussed.
My presentation on FES-hERL PET reporter gene imaging was scheduled on Nov 3rd evening. The short time of 10 min to present a rather basic study to a largely clinical audience attending in few numbers elicited no questions in the discussion period. However, during the meet-ups at tea or dinner few were interested to know the details of my research.
A researcher from Australia presented synthesis and evaluation of a 99mTc labeled glucosamine analog termed 99mTc-ECDG in arthritic rats, rheumatoid and osteoarthritis patients. The rat study showed mild to moderate accumulation of the tracer in the arthritic joints over 16hrs post-injection. In the patients of osteoarthritis, it was concluded that the tracer shows mild accumulation along articular surface and within synovial tissues. The tracer however is a large molecule and hence the mechanism or pattern of uptake and retention was unclear and questions were raised regarding its effectiveness for treatment monitoring.
Overall, the congress provided a good opportunity to meet old friends and make new ones too. I happen to meet Dr. Hussain and discuss about his recent work and developments in Bangladesh. Some time was taken off to visit local sightseeing places in and around Delhi. Lastly, I acknowledge my sincere gratitude to Prof. Fujibayashi for giving me the opportunity to attend this congress meeting.
The theme of the congress was chosen as “Globalization of Nuclear Medicine” highlighting the importance of increasing interconnectedness of the nuclear medicine professionals in the world. Although several eminent senior experts from home and abroad attended the congress, the younger professionals however, especially from abroad were fewer in number with some missing even for their oral presentations. Generally the congress provided an adequate platform to meet and interact with the delegates from all over the world, especially from Asia.
The congress began on Oct 31st with categorical seminar sessions focusing on topics such as nuclear cardiology, trends in radiopharmaceuticals and CT for nuclear medicine physicians. The session on trends in radiopharmaceuticals covered the basics from development of conventional or novel PET radiopharmaceuticals to application and dosimetry in in vivo models. The Sn-117m based radiopharmaceutical application for therapy was discussed by Dr. S. Srivastava of Brookhaven National Lab and showed some initial promising results in alleviation of pain from metastatic bone cancer, treatment of primary and metastatic bone cancer and as a skeletal imaging agent. It was interesting to note that Sn-117m could also be used for imaging and treatment of vulnerable atheromatous plaques and also for combined gene/radioisotopic therapy using recombinant adenoviral vectors. However, significant improvement in efficient production of Sn-117m labeled stannic chelates is still needed.
The formal inauguration ceremony was conducted on the evening of Oct 31st. I was delighted to see Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, a distinguished scientist and former president of India as chief guest. In his brief talk, he stressed the importance of bringing various scientific disciplines in unison to rid off the diseases presenting at various stages. He mentioned the pursuit of nuclear medicine or nano medicine technologies should pave the way for next-generation diagnosis or treatment options.
From the next day, the seminar sessions were organized as plenary talks, invited speaker talks and free paper (oral/poster) sessions. Although most of the sessions covered advances on conventional nuclear medicine, some of them highlighted the importance of modalities like PET-CT (still an emerging modality in India) in clinical diagnosis and treatment monitoring. Some of the interesting talks came from speakers of abroad. The PET neuroimaging probes were discussed by Dr. Joseph Mantil of Kettering Medical Center in which updates of FDG PET-CT application in dementia, seizures and glioma differentiation were mentioned. In addition 18F-FDDNP for amyloid plaques and 11C-methionine for low-grade glioma differentiation were also discussed.
My presentation on FES-hERL PET reporter gene imaging was scheduled on Nov 3rd evening. The short time of 10 min to present a rather basic study to a largely clinical audience attending in few numbers elicited no questions in the discussion period. However, during the meet-ups at tea or dinner few were interested to know the details of my research.
A researcher from Australia presented synthesis and evaluation of a 99mTc labeled glucosamine analog termed 99mTc-ECDG in arthritic rats, rheumatoid and osteoarthritis patients. The rat study showed mild to moderate accumulation of the tracer in the arthritic joints over 16hrs post-injection. In the patients of osteoarthritis, it was concluded that the tracer shows mild accumulation along articular surface and within synovial tissues. The tracer however is a large molecule and hence the mechanism or pattern of uptake and retention was unclear and questions were raised regarding its effectiveness for treatment monitoring.
Overall, the congress provided a good opportunity to meet old friends and make new ones too. I happen to meet Dr. Hussain and discuss about his recent work and developments in Bangladesh. Some time was taken off to visit local sightseeing places in and around Delhi. Lastly, I acknowledge my sincere gratitude to Prof. Fujibayashi for giving me the opportunity to attend this congress meeting.
