Preface
By the members of the Medical Reporters’ Academy
This report from the XXIIIrd World Congress of the International Union of Angiology (IUA), which was held in Athens, Greece, from June 21 to 25, 2008, has been prepared by our Medical Reporters’ Academy (MRA) group. We are an international group of young specialists with a core interest in venous disease. We work in various fields including dermatology and internal medicine in addition to the more directly related areas of angiology and vascular surgery, not to mention phlebology itself. We all have hospital practices and come from countries around the world (Czech Republic, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Romania, and Russia). Each year, we are invited to report from an international congress of interest to venous disease specialists. International congresses such as the last IUA congress in Athens are annual events, each spread over 4 to 5 days, comprising hundreds of presentations, not to mention plenary lectures, round tables, satellite events, and meet the specialist sessions. The tight schedule can only be completed if events run in parallel, often up to seven at a time. No matter how carefully delegates sift through the telephone directory-sized program—which will not contain the latest data gathered in the weeks since the abstracts were submitted— they will inevitably miss a number of key presentations. The solution is a team of peer reporters as we are, collecting and selecting the best information on the many presentations, under the supervision of our chairman, Professor Andrew Nicolaides. We have organized the information in different chapters: cerebrovascular diseases, cardiovascular diseases, peripheral arterial disease, venous thromboembolic diseases and chronic venous and lymphatic disease. We hope this report will be useful, not only for those who were present at the Congress, but also for those who were unable to attend.
We wish you an enjoyable read.
Medical Reporters’ Academy (MRA)
The reports from the XXIII World Congress of Angiology were prepared by the following members of the MRA team:
Chairman: Prof Andis NICOLAIDES
Vascular Screening and Diagnostic Centre
2 Kyriacou Matsi Ayios Dhometios 2368 Nicosia CYPRUS
Vadim BOGACHEV
1-st Moscow City Hospital Department of Surgery
117049, Lenisky pr-t, 8-6 Moscow RUSSIA
Giuseppe CALANDRA
Ospedale Israelitico
Via Fulda 14 00148 Roma ITALY
Jana HIRMEROVA
2nd Department of Internal Medicine University Hospital,
Dr. E. Benese 13 305 99 Plzen CZECH REPUBLIC
Grégoire LE GAL
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Brest
Hôpital de la Cavale Blanche 29609 Brest FRANCE
Armando MANSILHA
Vascular Surgery Department S. João University Hospital
Alameda Prof. Hernani Monteiro 4202-451 Porto PORTUGAL
Enrique MANUEL-RIMBAU MUNOZ
Son Dureta Hospital. C/Andrea Doria 55
07014 Palma de Mallorca SPAIN
Vassilios PAPAVASSILIOU
34, Ipirou street 15231, Chalandri, Athens, GREECE
Attila PUSKAS
Clinica Medicala II Str. Gh Marinescu 50
Cod 540136 Tg Mures ROMANIA
