Božo Krušlin

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Acta clin Croat 2000; 39:193-195 News193NEWSThe 11th Ljudevit Jurak International Symposiumon Comparative PathologyZagreb, June 9-10, 2000The 11th Ljudevit Jurak International Symposium on Com-parative Pathology, held in Zagreb, Croatia, June 9-10, 2000,under the auspices of the European Society of Pathology andAcademy of Medical Sciences of Croatia, was organized by theDepartment of Pathology, Sestre milosrdnice University Hos-pital, Zagreb, Croatia (President, Professor M. Belicza); Insti-tute of Pathology, Leopold Franzens University of Innsbruck,Innsbruck, Austria (Vice-president: Professor G. Mikuz); andDepartment of General Pathology, School of Veterinary Medi-cine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia (Vice-president:Professor Æ. GrabareviÊ). The Symposium was a good oppor-tunity for experience exchange, and comparison of ideas andresults of investigations between human and veterinary medi-cine.After the opening ceremony, the Ljudevit Jurak Award cer-emony for contribution to the advancement of comparativepathology took place. The awards were presented by ProfessorMladen ©tulhofer, president of the Croatian Academy of Medi-cal Sciences, to Professors H.G. Fassbender, Mainz, Germany,and D. Ferluga, Ljubljana, Slovenia.The main topic of the Symposium was Comparative Pathol-ogy of Tumors in 2000. Memorial lectures were presented byM. BraËko, Ljubljana, Slovenia, and R. Steinbeck, Kiel, Ger-many. Other invited speakers were F. Silvestri, Trieste, Italy; K.Gall-Tro¹elj, Zagreb, Croatia; Z. »ulig, Innsbruck, Austria; F.del Piero, Padua, Italy; M. Reinacher, Giessen, Germany; H.G.Fassbender, Mainz, Germany; and W.L. Ragland, Georgia,USA. Free papers were presented as oral presentations or post-ers. The authors from Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Slovenia andCroatia presented recent data on the diagnosis, protocols, andpathohistologic and immunohistochemical findings in differ-ent human and animal tumors. Posters on different subjectsincluding human and veterinary medicine were presentedmostly by younger authors from Italy, Brasil, Iceland, Slovenia,Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia.In the Herman Jurak Round Table on Rheumatologic Dis-eases, an interesting invited lecture on the value of animal mod-els for the pathogenetic evaluation of rheumatoid arthritis waspresented by Professor W.G. Fassbender from Germany.During the Symposium, two slide seminars were held. Theslide seminar on Cytopathology of Pleural and Peritoneal Ef-fusions was organized by Dr. A. PogaËnik, Ljubljana, Slovenia,and Drs. B. PetroviÊ and H. »upiÊ from Zagreb, Croatia. Theother slide seminar on Comparative Pathology of Human andAnimal Tumors was organized by Professor G. Mikuz fromInnsbruck, Austria. The cases were presented by Professors S.Dirnhofer, Innsbruck, Austria; M. Reinacher, Giessen, Ger-many; F. Gartner and F. Schmitt, Porto, Portugal; and B.Kru¹lin, Zagreb, Croatia.At the end of the Symposium, a poster discussion and posterpresentation award session were held. The Poster PresentationAward was presented to S.H. Bambir, S. Helgason, F. Marinoand B. Macri from Iceland and Italy.The next Symposium will be held on June 1-2, 2001, withgastrointestinal pathology as the main topic.Boæo Kru¹linHealthy Life Style and Prevention of StrokePostgraduate CourseDubrovnik, June 5-10, 2000This year’s Healthy Life Style and Prevention of StrokePostgraduate Course, organized by the Inter-University Cen-ter Dubrovnik, Academy of Medical Sciences of Croatia, andCroatian Stroke Society was held in Dubrovnik, Croatia, June5-10. Directors of this international postgraduate course areProfessor Vida Demarin, University of Zagreb; Professor Ro-man Haberl, University of Munich; Professor Kurt Niederkorn,University of Graz; and Assist. Professor Tanja Rundek, Colum-bia University, New York. Since the first Course in 1990, it hasbeen traditionally held every year at the beginning of June.More than thirty participants from all over Croatia (Zagreb,Osijek, Karlovac, Koprivnica, Zadar, Virovitica, Slavonski Brod,Vinkovci, Dubrovnik, Labin and Ka¹tel) as well as from theUnited States, Germany, Czech Republic, Latvia, Poland,Slovenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina attended the Course.The Course was opened by one of its directors, Professor VidaDemarin, who briefly described the history of the Course fromthe beginning in 1990 to the present. The Course began as gath-ering of a group of enthusiasts, having since grown into a re-spected meeting of distinguished experts dealing with stroke.Stroke risk factors, and new insights in the epidemiology, pre-vention, diagnosis and treatment of stroke are presented at theCourse. The main characteristic of the Course is that it enablesexchange of knowledge between renowned experts and youngcolleagues as well as comparison of data on stroke from variousNews194 Acta clin Croat, Vol. 39, No. 3, 2000Acta clin Croat 2000; 39:193-195countries. Professor Demarin emphasized that the Course couldnot be organized in Dubrovnik during the war, but the orga-nizers worked very hard to maintain its continuity. During thewar in Croatia, the Course was held in Zagreb and on the Bri-juni Islands, whereas last year it took place in Medulin due tothe war in Kosovo. Now, the Course had returned to its origi-nal venue, the beautiful town of Dubrovnik, hoping for it to beheld there in the years to come as well.This introduction was followed by the working part of theCourse. It began with Professor Demarin’s lecture on the pre-sent state and perspectives in the field of stroke. Assist. Profes-sor Z. Trkanjec presented the program of stroke prevention inCroatia, developed by the Croatian Stroke Society. Dr. AngelaSchreiber from Munich, Germany, delivered a lecture on thepossibilities of stroke prevention in regard to stroke risk factors.On the second day of the Course, the participants took ac-tive part in the work of the Congress of the Croatian Societyfor Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, held at the same timein Hotel Excelsior. The Course participants held a section onUltrasound in Neurology (chairpersons: Professor VidaDemarin and Assist. Professor Zlatko Trkanjec). Upon success-ful presentations made at the Congress, the Healthy Life Styleand Prevention of Stroke Postgraduate Course was continuedon Tuesday afternoon with a lecture by Professor Pavel Kalvachfrom Prague, Czech Republic, on local and distant metabolicchanges during ischemic failure. Professor Miljenko Kalousekand Dr. Josip Hat, Zagreb, Croatia, presented an educative lec-ture on computed tomography in the diagnosis of cerebrovas-cular disorders. Assist. Professor Andrei Alexandrov, Houston,USA, delivered a lecture on the usage of transcranial Doppler(TCD) in acute stroke. The second day of the Course was closedwith a lecture on impaired cerebral autoregulation in diabeticpatients, presented by Assist. Professor Bojana Ævan, Ljubljana,Slovenia.The third working day of the Course began with a lectureheld by Professor Vida Demarin on color and power Dopplerfindings in extracranial arterial disease and on the role of oph-thalmic artery in atherosclerotic carotid arterial disease. Dr. Ma-rijana Bosnar-PuretiÊ presented sonographic features of cranio-cervical arterial dissection. Assist. Professor Andrei Alexandrovheld a very interesting lecture on TCD monitoring duringthrombolysis in acute stroke patients, pointing out the obser-vation that TCD monitoring seemed to improve the outcomeof thrombolysis and that ultrasound beams somehow amelio-rated its success. Dr. Johannes Schenkel, Munich, Germany,presented a lecture on the diagnosis of intracranial arterial steno-sis by use of transcranial color-coded sonography. At the endof the third day of the Course, Dr. Kristina Jaracz, Poznan,Poland, delivered a lecture on the knowledge about strokeamong non-stroke patients.The program of the Course was continued on Friday, June9, with a lecture on secondary stroke prevention, held by As-sist. Professor Zlatko Trkanjec, which was followed by a lectureon 5-year follow-up study on the ischemic stroke outcome inthe Osijek area, presented by Dr. Dragutin KadojiÊ, Osijek,Croatia. Dr. Piotr Kowal, Poznan, Poland, held a lecture on ageand hemorrheologic changes in stroke. Dr. Aija Freimane,Valmeire, Latvia, presented an analysis of stroke survivors anddisability indices for planning of rehabilitation services. Dr. Ma-rija Vitas, Karlovac, Croatia, presented data on stroke mortal-ity collected during the last two years at the Department of Neu-rology, Karlovac General Hospital, with due consideration ofthe situation in the Karlovac area as a whole. Dr. Davor Jan-Ëuljak, Osijek, Croatia, showed data on the occurrence of hy-perglycemia in patients with ischemic stroke. Dr. Nikola BariÊ,Labin, Croatia, presented his results on the effect of breathholding on spectral Doppler display of the internal carotid bi-furcation. Dr. Ksenija MarËec, Koprivnica, Croatia, illustratedher results on the effect of benzodiazepines on evoked poten-tial response and their clinical use in vertigo syndrome. At theend of the working part of the Course, Dr. Anamarija Mrðen,Zadar, Croatia, presented results on TCD evaluation of the ef-fect of cilazapril, an ACE inhibitor, on cerebral hemodynam-ics in hypertensive patients.After closing remarks given by Course director, ProfessorVida Demarin, certificates of attendance were distributed andthis year’s Healthy Life Style and Prevention of Stroke Postgra-duate Course was finished. All lectures and presentations willbe published in the journal Acta clinica Croatica.On Friday, June 9, the Inter-University Center Dubrovnikorganized a party for the participants of all courses held duringthe week. At the party, Mrs. Berta DragiËeviÊ, secretary of theInter-University Center Dubrovnik, expressed her gratitude tothe participants of the courses held at the Center. She also ex-pressed her hope for the courses organized by the Center wouldbe held in Dubrovnik in the forthcoming years, because in thepast years many courses had to be organized elsewhere due tothe war.Apart from the working part of the Course, a welcome cock-tail and gala dinners in famous Dubrovnik restaurants were offe-red to the Course participants. Also, a one-day trip to the is-land of Lopud was organized, where the participants gatheredin an informal atmosphere. The picturesque and beautiful townof Dubrovnik and its surroundings overwhelmed the partici-pants, especially those visiting Dubrovnik for the first time.They all announced they would come to attend the next year’sHealthy Life Style and Prevention of Stroke PostgraduateCourse in Dubrovnik.Zlatko TrkanjecSudden Cardiac Death:How to Identify and Treat Patients at Risk?4th Symposium of the Working Group onArrhythmias of the Croatian Cardiac SocietyZagreb, April 7, 2000The 4th Symposium of the Working Group on Arrhythmiasof the Croatian Cardiac Society was held in Hotel Inter-Con-tinental in Zagreb, on April 4, 2000, under the auspices of theNewsActa clin Croat, Vol. 39, No. 3, 2000 195Acta clin Croat 2000; 39:193-195Working Group on Arrhythmias of the European Society ofCardiology.This year’s Symposium was dedicated to sudden cardiacdeath with special reference to diagnostic and therapeutic mo-dalities. There are several reasons why this issue was chosen.Despite significant advances in the management of patientswith life-threatening arrhythmias, sudden cardiac death ac-counts for some 50% of total cardiac deaths. During the last tenyears, a large number of clinical researches have been performedin this field of cardiology that required evaluation and consen-sus for daily clinical practice. Finally, Croatia has not yet estab-lished a registry of sudden cardiac death, patients at risk are trea-ted mainly conservatively, and implantation rate of cardioverter-defibrillators is very low.Prominent European and Croatian cardiologists were in-vited to the Symposium to answer these questions. Structurally,the Symposium was divided into four sessions, including themost interesting aspects of sudden cardiac death.In the session on Epidemiology and Mechanisms, themain topic were the mechanisms of sudden cardiac death andprofiles of patients at risk. Among presentations, mentionshould be made of the lecture on sudden cardiac death in com-petitive athletes, presented by Professor F. Furlanello, a re-nowned Italian cardiologist from Trento. Other speakers inthis session were Dr. M. JakiÊ (Osijek), Professor P. Rakovec(Ljubljana), Dr. A. JoviÊ (Zadar), and Dr. Z. BatiniÊ (Kra-pinske Toplice). The session on Identification of Patients atRisk was very important, because all methods for risk strati-fication of sudden cardiac death were presented critically, withdue mutual consideration and in relation to different heart di-seases. In this session, papers were presented by Professor K.BirtiÊ (Zagreb), Dr. D. PuljeviÊ (Zagreb), Professor L. Zapu-toviÊ (Rijeka), Dr. K. StaniÊ (Rijeka), and Professor A. ©mal-celj (Zagreb). In the session on Prevention of Sudden CardiacDeath, the main topic was primary prevention of sudden car-diac death, dealing with prophylactic measures aimed at re-ducing sudden death rates in cardiac patients by then free fromany history of life-threatening arrhythmic events. Professor Æ.Reiner (Zagreb), Professor C. Torp-Pedersen (Copenhagen),Dr. B. RadiÊ (Zagreb), Professor P. Touboul (Lyon), and Pro-fessor H. Klein (Magdeburg) presented the latest data andcurrent state of the art on the use and efficacy of statins, ACEinhibitors, antiarrhythmic drugs, and cardioverter-defibrilla-tors in patients identified to be at risk. The last session onTreatment of Patients at Risk was dedicated to therapy forhigh-risk patients in special clinical conditions such as heartfailure (Professor V. Goldner, Zagreb), hypertrophic cardiomy-opathy (Assist. Professor D. PetraË, Zagreb), survived cardiacarrest (Dr. R. Cappato, Milan), and coronary revascularization(Professor K. Steinbach, Vienna). A number of very impor-tant conclusions were derived from this session. The presenceof heart failure significantly increases the incidence of suddencardiac death. The risk of sudden death in hypertrophic car-diomyopathy is low, and therapy is still directed to patientswho have experienced life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias.Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators are superior to antiar-rhythmic drugs in prolonging survival in patients with survivedcardiac arrest or unstable ventricular tachycardia. At this time,there are no data on the effects of anti-ischemic interventions(PTCA, CABG) as preventive measures for sudden cardiacdeath. Results from a small group of patients show that theprognosis of patients in whom anti-ischemic intervention ispossible is equal to the prognosis in patients treated with animplantable cardioverter-defibrillator.Summaries of all invited lectures have been printed in theBook of Abstracts. More than 300 participants from differentareas of Croatia as well as from Slovenia and Bosnia andHerzegovina attended the Symposium. The Symposium wasevaluated according to the Croatian Medical Chamber regula-tions, and all participants received a certificate of attendance.Dubravko PetraË

The 11th Ljudevit Jurak International Symposium on Comparative Pathology

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