Report of the Auditing Committee for the year 2005
Luan Truong, Shamila Mauiyyedi, and Regina Verani
The members of the auditing committee independently reviewed the financial records of the Renal Pathology Society for the period of October 1st, 2004 through September 30th, 2005.
It is noted that the balance of the fund of the RPS on 10/01/04 was $25,471.03 and it was $39,380.81 on 9/30/05. All the financial transactions during that period are appropriate.
Communications Committee report
Peter Furness, Ken Joh, Suzanne Meleg-Smith (Chair), Luiz Moura and Jean Olson.
The committee is dedicated to enhancing communication among members of the RPS.
Despite the almost 2-month interruption due to hurricane Katrina, the RPS website has had 5,000 visits in the last 6 months, reaching over 26,000.
We have added a “Manual of operations” to the website, for each committee to list its guidelines. The membership list and “yellow pages” are updated as new information is received.
Upon request, we continue to disseminate messages to the RPS membership
Membership Committee Report
Chair, Maria M. Picken.
New members since the last RPS meeting (USCAP, March, 2004): 36. Australia x1, Colombia x1, Mexico x 1, Holland x1, Switzerland x1, Italy x1, Germany x1, USA x12, Canada x2, India x9, Singapore x1, Iran x1, Turkey x2, Russia x1, Korea x2.
Applications are being considered throughout the year. We need more new members!
Current number of members: 333, Junior members: 3%, Emeritus: 10% .
New members: Vania Nose, Boston - Cho, Ypng Mee, Seul, Korea - David R Kelly Birminghan - E. Mroczek-Musliman Birmingham - J.Bell, Little Rock - R. Sibley, S. Francisco - Ariana Gasper Zurich, Switzerland - Alex Sukhanov, Russia - Christopher Sherman, Toronto - R. Andrade, Bogota, Colombia - Aruna V. Vanikar, India - Tushar Toprani, India - Kamal Kanodia, India - Chandra Mithilesh, India - L.P.Kiss, New York - Amit Goel, India - S. Kaul, Baltimore - J. Lyons, Knoxville - G. Gobe, Australia - Pizzolito Stephano, Italy - E. Taboada, Kansas City - Asha Rupani, India - Kerstin Amann, Germany - G. Gonlusen, Turkey - Y.J.Choi, Boston - Uribe, Mexico - Manoj Jain, India - J.L.Barnes, San Antonio - D. Taheri, Iran - Yihan Wang, Little Rock - Puay Hoon Tan, Singapore - Kusum Joshi, India - Ritambhra Nada, India - Emile De Heer, Holland - Madeleine Moussa, Canada - Asuman Nihan Haberal, Turkey
Research Committee Report
Patrick D. Walker, Chair, Terry Cook, Mark Haas, Serina Bagnasco, Carrie Phillips
1. Dense Deposit Disease
a. Paper is in preparation – combined the European and the Japanese data with the North American data and I have completed the statistical analysis of the pathologic data sheets. This will be one pathology paper rather than the two as originally planned
b. KidNeeds and the Milagros Foundation Meeting – the first meeting was summarized and published. Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis type II (dense deposit disease): an update. J Am Soc Nephrol 16: 1392-1403, 2005
1. Second meeting is being planned
2. IgA Nephropathy consensus classification -
a. The International IgA Nephropathy Network chaired by Dr. John Feehally of Leicester, UK convened a third meeting in Oxford to develop a consensus classification of IgA Nephropathy.
1. The Pathology section was headed by Drs Terry Cook and Ian Roberts.
Also present: Charles Alpers, Jan Bruijn, Vivette D’Agati, Steve Emancipator, Franco Ferrario (who regaled us with O Sole Mio et al), Agnes Fogo, Mark Haas, Andrew Herzenberg, Prue Hill, Kensuke Joh, and Pat Walker (I hope I didn’t leave anyone out!!!)
2. Dr. Fogo has arranged a slide review at the upcoming USCAP meeting. Hopefully, cases will begin circulating soon so that we have completed at least some of material prior to the Spring meeting.
3. American Society of Pediatric Nephrology Meeting 2006
a. I attended their Spring Meeting this year and was one of very few pathologists in attendance (I may have been the only one). I proposed two sessions for the 2006 meeting and was surprised that both were accepted.
1. Pediatric Renal Disease – It’s Not Just Little Adults -
Co-Chairs: Patrick D. Walker and Sharon Andreoli
a. Congenital Nephrotic Syndrome – An Update: Stephen M. Bonsib
b. Toward a New Taxonomy for the Podocytopathies: Laura Barisoni
c. Renal Pathology in Pediatric Transplant Patients: Carole Vogler
d. Dense Deposit Disease is Not Membranoproliferative GN: Patrick D. Walker
2. Renal Biopsy Conference
Victoria Norwood – Pediatric Nephrologist
Patrick D Walker – Renal Pathologist
a. Four or five cases will be developed and presented in standard Renal Biopsy Conference Format at a luncheon meeting which will include an audience participation voting system. We are encouraging several senior pediatric nephrologists and hopefully any pathologists there to attend this session and participate vigorously from the ‘floor’.
4. Actual Practices Paper in preparation for submission to Archives
Program Committee Report
Chair: V. Nickeleit (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, H.J. Groene (DKFZ, Heidelberg, Germany), C. Alpers (University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Proposal I
“Pathogenesis and Diagnosis of Renal Disease: The Essential Role of Ultrastructural Investigation”
The session has been planned by the program organizing committees of the "Renal Pathology Society" (V. Nickeleit, chair, and C. Alpers and H.J. Groene) and the Society for Ultrastructural Pathology (J. Lloreta, chair, and G. Herrera and J. Hicks).
The Symposium is dedicated to “Dr. Conrad Pirani”
On Sunday morning, February 12th 2006 the "Renal Pathology Society" and the “Society for Ultrastructural Pathology” will organize a joint companion meeting. Each speaker will have 30 minutes (including 5-7 minutes of discussion). Here is the final program for our joint session:
V. D’Agati, MD (Department of Pathology, College of Physicians & Surgenos of Columbia University,
New York, N.Y.): “Memorial tribute to Dr. Conrad Pirani.”
S. Singh, MD (The University of North Carolina, Dep. of Pathology, Chapel Hill, N.C.): "The diagnostic utility of negative-staining electron microscopy for the detection of polyomavirus infections in the urine: a comparative analysis of electron microscopy, conventional cytology, and PCR."
M. Kashgarian, MD (Yale University, Dep. of Pathology, New Haven, CT): " The contribution of
quantitative techniques including morphometry to renal diagnosis".
G. A. Herrera, MD (Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Dep. of Pathology, Shreveport, LA): " Plasticity of mesangial cells: a basis for understanding pathological alterations".
J. Hicks, MD (Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX): "Modulation of autoimmune glomerulonephritis in a murine model: key role of ultrastructural evaluation".
J. Costello, PhD (The University of North Carolina, Dep. of Cell and Developmental Biology, Chapel Hill, N.C.): "Cryo-electron microscopy of organs, cells, and cellular components".
K. Tryggvason MD, PhD (Karolinska Institute, Dep. of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Division of Matrix Biology, Stockholm, Sweden): "Three dimensional structure of the glomerular slit diaphragm as revealed by electron tomography".
The session will be moderated by: V. Nickeleit, MD (The University of North Carolina, Dep. of Pathology, Nephropathology Laboratory, Chapel Hill, N.C.) and J. Lloreta, MD, PhD (Hospital del Mar and Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Dep. of Pathology, Barcelona, Spain).
The program organizing committees identified educational and scientific needs, defined specific topics, and contacted presenters for the session accordingly. The topics chosen for presentation should provide the audience with an in-depth understanding of the contribution of electron microscopy to diagnosis and research.
. Proposal II
RPS sponsored ASN symposium in 2006 (120 minutes presentation time): List of potential topics and speakers
- “Chronic Allograft Nephropathy: Time for Change”
-“The different forms of renal allograft sclerosis and remodeling: what is chronic?” (M.J. Mihatsch, Institute for Pathology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland; < mjmihatsch@uhbs.ch >
-“Fibroproliferative vascular disease and chronic rejection: genomics and new treatment strategies”. (P. Hayry, Transplantation Laboratory, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, < pekka.hayry@helsinki.fi >
-“Thinking outside the box: retinoic acids in the treatment of acute and chronic rejection.” (H.J. Groene, DKFZ, Heidelberg, Germany, < H.-J.Groene@dkfz-heidelberg.de >
-“What is chronic allograft nephropathy: time for new strategies !?” (P. Halloran, Dep. of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, < phil.halloran@ualberta.ca-“Pathology and Molecular Approaches”
-“Renal allograft rejection, peripheral mononuclear cells and gene chips.” (D. R. Salomon, Department of Molecular and Experimental Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA
-
Fibroproliferative vascular disease and chronic rejection: genomics and new treatment strategies”. (P. Hayry, Transplantation Laboratory, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, < pekka.hayry@helsinki.fi > )
-“Transcriptomic based molecular diagnoses of renal biopsies”. (Matthias Kretzler, Munich, Germany)
-“Differentiation between chronic rejection and chronic cyclosporine toxicity by analysis of renal cortical mRNA.” (Koop, K , Department of Pathology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands. < k.koop@lumc.nl > -or- J. Bruijn, Department of Pathology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands, < J.A.Bruijn@lumc.nl >)
-Viral Diseases and the Kidney: a Critical Update”
-“Parvovirus B19 infections and kidney disease: fact or fiction?” J. Kopp, Bethesda, MD
-“Polyoma virus-allograft nephropathy: screening, staging, and monitoring.” (M.J. Mihatsch, Institute for Pathology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland; < mjmihatsch@uhbs.ch > - or – as second choice: V. Nickeleit, UNC)
-Hepatitis and renal disease”.lp@u.washington.edu >)
-“HIV associated renal diseases”. V. D’Agati, New York, NY
Scientific and education Committee Report, Nov 2005
Ian Roberts
RPS annual satellite conference 2006
This will be held as a satellite meeting to the IAP meeting in Montreal, September 16-21. The RPS meeting will be a half day meeting - date is yet to be fixed but will not clash with the renal sessions at the IAP.
The format will be unchanged from the successful 2005 meeting. Could RPS members encourage trainees to contribute to the case presentation session, in order to broaden participation at the meeting. Provisional programme pending speaker availability:
Symposium on the classification of glomerular disease
ISN/RPS classification of lupus nephritis
14.00-14.15 What are the changes and why were they made? T Cook
14.15-14.30 Clinical and prognostic correlations. Helmut Rennke
14.30-14.45 Reproducibility: is it any better than the WHO? P Furness
14.45-14.55 Discussion
Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis
14.55-15.10 Clinical relevance of the Columbia classification D Thomas
15.10-15.25 Glomerular tip lesions and relationship to FSGS A Howie
15.25-15.40 Classification of podocytopathies by biomarkers L Barisoni
15.40-15.50 Discussion
Break
16.10-16.40 New developments in dense deposit disease. P Walker
16.40-18.00 Case presentations
Future meetings
As agreed previously, the following RPS satellite meeting will be outside North America. The planned venue is at the European Congress of Pathology in Istanbul, September 2007. This may enable a combined meeting with the Nephropathology Section of the ESP. Potential symposia include IgA nephropathy (the International IgA nephropathy Working Group will have completed its report by then) and quality control/proficiency testing in renal pathology.
Web-based External Quality Assessment
EQA schemes based on circulation of pre-stained slides have been traditionally used but numbers of participants are limited by the number of sections that can be taken from a renal biopsy. For example, the UK Renal Pathology EQA scheme is limited to less than 100 participants. Peter Furness has recently trialled web-based EQA using virtual slide technology, running this immediately prior to the usual circulation of slides, with encouraging results. This system will broaden participation, enabling international schemes with large numbers of participants.