An evening symposium on the above theme was held in Le Meridien, Kuala Lumpur. The series of lectures were delivered by invited speakers, Dr John Hoe, Consultant Radiologist; Dr Melvin Tan, Consultant Cardiologist both of whom were from Singapore and Professor Dr Peter Aspelin, Professor in Medical Radiology from Huddinge University Hospital in Sweden. The sponsor was GE Healthcare Medical Diagnostics.

Contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) is a serious complication of contrast-enhanced imaging procedures. CIN means damage to the kidneys by contrast media, tending to occur if a person already has existent kidney (renal) impairment and more so if the person has diabetes as well. It is the third most common cause of hospital-acquired kidney failure and in high risk patients; the incidence of CIN can be as high as 50%. Professor Dr Peter Aspelin spoke on “How to prevent contrast induced nephropathy”, discussing clinical trials, consequences of CIN, identifying those at risk of CIN, and offered practical strategies to prevent this serious disorder. In his presentation, he told the audience, especially the radiologists they needed to know how to calculate/gauge renal function better before using contrast media in their procedures. Radiologists also needed to “re-learn” renal physiology to enable them to manage their patients better. Knowing the variety of contrast media was important, including those which were more “renal friendly” – one of which in his studies proved to be Visipaque.

Prof Aspelin spoke after Dr John Hoe’s lecture on “Non invasive imaging of coronary plaque with Multi-Slice Computed Tomography (MSCT) and clinical implications”. Dr Hoe expounded on coronary plaque characterisation, risk stratification and the role of MSCT including its limitations in the management of a patient with suspected or existing coronary artery disease.

Following on Dr Hoe’s lecture was Dr Melvin Tan’s exposition on “What an interventional cardiologist needs to know about the use of iodinated contrast media”. Besides discussing contrast media used in interventional cardiology or radiology, he expanded on the use of MSCT, including the radiation protection issues.

It was therefore a rather interesting series of lectures, displaying the crossing of boundaries in skill and expertise as well as knowledge – a good reflection of the evolving practice of medicine! Imagine the radiologists speaking of coronary artery risk stratification and classification of coronary plaques or renal physiology and CIN while the cardiologist spoke about contrast media and radiation protection - the latter being traditionally a field where only radiologists were conversant with.

Similarly the audience was a motley group made up of the radiological community and their physician colleagues from cardiology, nephrology, urology, and some from other disciplines and the paramedical staff who form part of the radiological or interventional practitioner’s team.