Meeting Report
Dialysis 2001
20th to 22nd June
Royal Free Hospital, London

This highly successful course has been run over the last 3 years and is aimed at providing a thorough grounding for professionals and nephrology trainees in all areas of renal replacement therapy. This year, over 45 delegates attended the 3 day event which was organised jointly by staff of the Royal Free Hospital, the Royal Free and University College Medical School and the Lister Hospital, Stevenage.

The speakers were recruited from across the UK and covered a wide range of topics ranging from the basic principles of dialysis through to the management of problem patients. There was an update on new techniques including haemodiafiltration and the use of bicarbonate-based CAPD fluids. Delegates heard predictions for the future demands of an expanding and ageing dialysis population, saw excerpts from the latest version of the Renal Association Standards Document and discussed plans for the forthcoming National Service Framework for Renal Diseases. Lunchtime workshops included a practical demonstration on techniques of vascular access monitoring and a guide to the website Nephronline, provided by Amgen Limited .

The keynote speaker was Charles van Ypersele, Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the Catholic University de Louvain in Brussels whose lecture was entitled "Carbonyl Stress and long-term complications of dialysis". He explained how the accumulation of small, reactive carbonyl compounds in ureamic plasma gives rise to protein and lipid damage characterised by the formation of advanced glycation and lipoxidation end products. Such "carbonyl stress", he explained, may contribute to many of the long-term complications of chronic renal failure including dialysis-related amyloid and premature vascular disease. Most excitingly, therapeutic intervention aimed at inactivating carbonyl precursors may be feasible in the future.

By popular demand, it is planned to run the course again during the latter half of June 2002. Look out for details on Nephronline or contact Pamela Francis at the Centre for Nephrology, Royal Free Hospital (Tel: 020 7830 2930, Fax: 020 7830 2125, e.mail pamela.francis@rfh.nthames.nhs.uk).

David Wheeler
Senior Lecturer in Nephrology
Royal Free Hospital, London