CIRSE celebrates 20th birthday

The first Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe (CIRSE) congress was held in Vienna, 1985, with meetings since taking place in Budapest, Crete, London, Venice, Prague, Antalya and Barcelona. Attendance at the congress has grown rapidly in recent years, from 300 attendees in 1993 to almost 4,000 in 2004.

Chairman of CIRSE's scientific programme committee, Dr Tony Nicholson, of Leeds General Infirmary Department of Radiology, UK, has described this year's congress as "an eclectic mixture of technical, clinical and scientific lectures and workshops".

"We have tried to look into the future and predict the wonderful things that might happen and the enormous hurdles we still have to leap over," he writes in his introduction to this year's program. Nicholson goes on to discuss how the number of scientific sessions have been expanded, along with more hands-on workshops and a greater use of virtual reality for such things as training in carotid stenting techniques.

This year's congress will see Dr Ziv Haskal, who heads the vascular and interventional radiology division at Columbia University, present results of the US multi-center randomized trial of the Bard e-PTFE encapsulated stent graft versus balloon angioplasty.

In a late breaking abstracts session on September 10, Haskal will discuss the study in a presentation titled 'Stent grafts prolong dialysis graft patency'.

The purpose of the study was to assess the safety and efficacy of self-expanding extended-polytetrafluoroethylene (e-PTFE) encapsulated flared and straight stentgrafts compared with angioplasty for treatment of stenotic venous anastomoses in failing synthetic arteriovenous access grafts.

The randomized, prospective, 16-center study enrolled 190 patients. Enrolled upper extremity grafts had diameter stenoses greater than 50% and obligate hemodynamic, functional abnormalities (Dialysis Outcomes Quality Initiative/Society of Interventional Radiology guidelines). Functional and venographic assessments were made at two and six months with core lab analysis.

In an embolotherapy session on September 13, Dr Wouter Hehenkamp from the Gynaecology department of Amsterdam's Academic Medical Center will present on pain and recovery results of the EMMY trial (a randomized comparison of uterine artery embolisation and hysterectomy in the treatment of symptomatic uterine fibroids).

Hehenkamp and fellow researchers performed the first randomized trial comparing uterine artery embolisation (UAE) with hysterectomy in the treatment of uterine fibroids causing menorrhagia. One-hundred and seventy-seven patients were included in the trial (89 hysterectomies; 88 UAEs). Pain scores (numerical rating scale) and other aspects of pain were measured and recovery to the various activities was assessed by a questionnaire.

Dr Gunnar Tepe of the University of Tuebingen, Germany will present on interventional treatment of chronic peripheral arterial occlusions (RIO-Trial) in the Periferal PTA and Stents session on September 11.

The RIO trial is designed to test the efficacy of glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa blockade on subacute reocclusions in patients with interventional recanalization of chronic occlusions in superficial femoral and popliteal arteries. Four-hundred and twenty patients will be randomly assigned to ReoPro or placebo. Patients will be eligible for randomization with occlusions longer than 5cm. Doppler ultrasound follow-ups will be at 30 days, and after six and 12 months.

Also on September 11, Dr Derek Gould of the Royal Liverpool University NHS Trust, UK, will discuss virtual reality training in an experimental work session in a presentation titled 'Defining interventional radiology practice for realistic virtual reality simulation'. The purpose of Gould's study was to investigate human factors and instrument/tissue properties in interventional radiology (IR) procedures. His research team obtained local research ethics committee approval for studies of human factors and procedural forces. Interventional radiology procedures, performed by masters and non-masters, were video-recorded and reviewed and decomposed by an occupational psychologist. Procedure descriptions were constructed, converted into a hierarchical task analysis, and validated by subject matter experts (SME). SMEs then derived indices (metrics) for performance assessment. The physics basis of simulation was investigated using calibrated, fingertip force measurement pads, worn during interventional radiology needle puncture procedures in patients.

CIRSE came into being in 1985, when the European College of Angiography (ECA) and the European Society of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology (ESCVIR) joined forces. CIRSE is now the largest society body of interventional radiologists in Europe, with over 1,300 members ranging from around 50 different countries worldwide.

Former CIRSE president, Professor David Allison

"I have belonged to many medical societies during my career but CIRSE has always been my firm favorite. Scientifically it has been constantly dynamic and always at the cutting edge of new and exciting techniques. Its extraordinarily successful development over the years has demonstrated that true international co-operation is not only possible but can be immensely beneficial and, on a personal level, it has within its membership some of the nicest colleagues it has ever been my pleasure to meet."

Current President of CIRSE, Professor Andreas Adam

"CIRSE has changed enormously in the years I have been involved in it but one aspect of it remains the same: it has always been exciting and fun. Perhaps, this is because interventional radiologists are individuals who like to get things done, and want to see immediate results. This makes them lively and interesting people to be with.

CIRSE is now the largest subspecialty radiological society in Europe, with its own office and its own staff. It is well placed to help its members with the many challenges that face interventional radiologists today.

I am confident that in the next few years interventional radiology will become a mainstream clinical discipline. CIRSE is ideally placed to play its role in this transformation."