The meeting was attended by almost 700 participants, including the faculty, mainly from Europe, North America and Asia but also a few participants from Africa, South America and Australia. The meeting started as usual with the Advanced course in Diagnostic Neuroradiology and the Interventional Advanced Course running in parallel the first day followed by the Scientific meeting. The participants came from several countries with the majority from Greece, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, United Kingdom and USA.

Professor Danielle Balériaux and Professor Othmar Schubiger became Honorary Members of the Society as recognition of their longstanding contribution to the Society and to European Neuroradiology.

 

The 34th annual meeting of the ESNR had an extremely interesting educational and scientific program for all participants. The meeting started off on Thursday with the 17^th advanced course entitled “New insights in white matter diseases”. Concepts of white matter structure, development and pathology were clearly explained in view of their imaging features. Both conventional and advanced (high field) MR imaging methods were discussed, including diffusion tensor imaging and magnetization transfer imaging. Course participants were instructed about state-of-the-art imaging in white matter diseases, such as MS, metabolic disorders and dementia, by eminent speakers (see program for speakers names, all did very well). During the meeting, morning refresher courses were devoted to brain movement disorders, “new imaging modalities (MRS, DWI/DTI, PWI and fMRI) in clinical practice” and epilepsy. These were very well attended!

 

Scientific sessions started with an invited 25 minute lecture introducing the topic of the session, followed by 10 paper presentations. This format was much appreciated by the attendees and should be continued in future meetings. The content and presentation level of the scientific abstracts was generally high. Other highlights of the meeting were the “case based review” sessions by Professors Anne Osborn (brain) and Johan van Goethem (spine).

 

In parallel with the 18th Advanced Course the 2nd Advanced Interventional Course on "Spine and Spinal Cord" took place. The morning session covered in depth the spinal vascular malformations including their classification, imaging and endovascular treatment. The afternoon session was devoted to the topic "spine treatment across Europe" and included tumor ablation as well as diagnostic and therapeutic procedures for disc herniation. The teaching faculty was composed of experts in the field, the attendance was high and the feedback of the participants was very positive. During the congress morning refresher courses and several scientific sessions starting with an invited lecture and followed by oral presentations covered virtually the entire field of interventional neuroradiology.

 

The social program included a welcome party on Thursday evening where we all gathered around the outdoor pool at the venue and a gala dinner on Saturday evening at the yacht club in the harbor overlooking the Acropolis in the distance.

During the meeting there was also an opportunity for those that have completed the full circles of the Pierre Lasjaunias European Course in Neuroradiology (ECNR) and passed the previous written exams to take the oral exam arranged by Prof Ernst-Wilhelm Radue and to his help and support he had Ms Alexandra Palatini. She kept good track of both participants and examiners. A total of 36 participants were examined by a total of 25 examiners from different countries. For each examination there were 2 examiners. Overall it was well-organized and after spoken to some of the participants being examined I got the feeling that overall the examination were well received even if little stressful.