Welcome to the official web site of ISCORN

The Radiouclides in Nephrourology (RIN) group was formed in 1968 after an international symposium in Liège in 1967 devoted to this subject.

The purpose of the group is to provide a forum for the exchange of the developments in radionuclide techniques in nephro-urology.

This site is intended mainly for specialists working in renal nuclear medicine.
General information on nuclear medicine is available from the British (www.bnms.org.uk), European (www.eanm.org) or American (www.snm.org) web sites.

If you are a patient seeking more information about the diagnosis or treatment of kidney disease, there are many internet resources including:

www.kidney.org
www.kidney.org.uk
www.kidneypatientguide.org.uk/site/contents.html
www.hammersmithkpa.org.uk

The major invited presentations from Anatalya, Turkey will be published in the January 2008 issue of the Seminars in Nuclear Medicine.

The next meeting will be held in Prague, The Czech Republic.

Coordinating the group and planning of future symposia is undertaken by the International Scientific Committee of Radionuclides in Nephrourology (ISCORN).

 

 
The very first event in the history of ISCORN was the symposium on applications of radionuclides in diseases of the kidneys and urinary tact at the 32nd Belgian Congress of Urology in Liege, 1967 [1].  Since then, thirteen international symposia on Radionuclides in Nephrourology have been organized in new York (1971), Berlin (1974),  Boston (1977), London (1981), Lausanne (1986).  Williamsburg (1989), Chester (1992), Sante Fe (1995), Copenhagen (1998), Montery (2001), LaBaule (2004) and Antalya (2007).  Besides organizing international symposia and publishing the proceedings as the separate volumes of the journals and books, ISCORN activities included preparation and publication of consensus reports on various methodical and clinical aspects of nuclear nephrourology.

Although nuclear nephrourology is usually considered as a domain of routine clinical practice rather than intensive scientific research, a comparison of major topics in the last 2 symposia indicates appearance of the new horizons in the field.  While in the monograph [2] including selected lectures from La Baule, 2004, classical chapters on the Measurement of renal function in health and disease, Obstruction in adults, Antenatally detected hydronephrosis, Renovascular disease, and Urinary tract infection in children dominated over a single chapter on Functional and molecular imaging (electron beam CT, MRI and PET), in recent volume of Seminars in Nuclear Medicine [3[ dedicated to selected lectures from Antalya, 2007, 4 of 7 papers are on Molecular imaging of reported gene expression in prostate cancer, Radiopharmaceuticals for renal PET, Measurement of GFR with MRI, and Decision support systems in diuresis renography. 

In spite of the progress documented by the reports on molecular imaging, a lot of work remains to be done in standardization and quality control of routine clinical procedures, and in education and training in applications of sophisticated analysis methods and software.  Therefore, the programme of 2010 symposium is being consulted with the IAEA (represented by the head of nuclear medicine section prof. M. Dondi) and ESNM/EANM (represented by prof. L. Mansi).  Ideally, the meeting should bring together nuclear medicine physicians, radiologists, pediatricians, nephrologists, urologists and physiologists to cover many various clinical aspects of functional imaging in nephrourology.  The details of the symposium programme will be published in due course. - Martin Samal, Charles University Prague, Czech Republic.

References   

[1] Blaufox MD.  A brief history of the radionuclides in nephrourology group (ISCORN).  Seminars in nuclear medicine 2008; 38(1):2-8

[2] Prigent A, Piepsz A (editors).  Functional Imaging in Nephro-Urology.  Taylor and Francis, London 2006, 246 pp.

[3] Freeman LM, Blaufox MD (editors).  Radionuclides in Nephrourology.  Seminars in Nuclear Medicine 2008; 38(1):1-102
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