Exploring the moral minefield of hyperkalaemia or why you should attend the AACB's conference

Disease, diabetes and endocrinology are the central focuses at the AACB’s 2015 conference, which has the major clinical theme of ‘Partnerships in testing’.

For the first time the Australasian Association of Clinical Biochemists’ conference will have a diabetes feature day and an endocrine feature day where leading experts from Australian Diabetes Society (ADS), Australian Diabetes Educators Association (ADEA) and the Endocrine Society of Australia (ESA) will be giving presentations. Day 3 has a part clinical theme of ‘Bone health’.

To demonstrate the AACB partnership with the three associations, two primary prominent clinicians from Sydney will be Clinical Co-chairs at the ASM: Associate Professor Steve Twigg PhD, FRACP, who is an endocrinologist and the medical head of Endocrinology Research Laboratories at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the University of Sydney, past president of Australian Diabetes Society (2008–2010) and Associate Professor Rory Clifton Bligh PhD, FRACP, who is also an endocrinologist and conjoint associate professor in Medicine at the University of Sydney and Staff Specialist in Endocrinology at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, with primary interests in thyroid cancer and metabolic bone disease research.

The keynote speaker and David Curnow Lecturer for 2015 is Professor Graeme Eisenhofer from the University Hospital Dresden, where he is the coordinator of a Clinical Research Unit focusing on disorders of adrenal function. Prof Eisenhofer’s earlier substantial work at the NIH put plasma free metanephrines at the forefront of adrenal investigation and his expertise in LC-MS makes him an invaluable contact to advise Australasian laboratories moving in this direction.

Diabetes feature day

The opening plenary is a comprehensive and vigorous three-way presentation of HbA1c for diagnosis by AACB luminaries Graham Jones and Chris Florkowski with the state of the union reports, and the ADS and ADIPS chair Aidan McElduff, who has spoken strongly on HbA1c in Australia, Europe and at the ADA in the US.

The diabetes program is condensed in one day with a clinical symposium on advances in the understanding of complications and a detailed “disease mechanisms and research” symposium.

Prof Richard MacIsaac, professor and director of Endocrinology and Diabetes at St Vincent’s Hospital and the University of Melbourne, will engage A/Prof Graham Jones in a quasi-debate about “retiring microalbumin” from routine testing.

Endocrine feature day

Day 2 has an endocrine disease focus with the keynote address on phaeochromocytoma by Prof Graeme Eisenhofer. The afternoon plenary experts are Michael Stowasser to give the aldosterone counterpoint to the Eisenhofer address and Prof Ken Ho, who will deliver a frank appraisal on adequacy of current laboratory tests for pituitary disease. A/Prof Ann McCormack, who leads the Hormones and Cancer group at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, and the Sydney Pituitary Collaborative Group, will focus on cortisol assays and how assay performance directly impacts on monitoring of Cushing’s patients.

During the ESA feature day there will be nine speakers including Prof Carolyn Sue, Director of Neurogenetics at Royal North Shore Hospital, University of Sydney, and Director of the National Centre for Adult Stem Cell Research, who will speak on her experience with FGF 21 testing and importance as an emerging marker of metabolic status. Invited speakers are A/Prof Anju Johan from Monash, who set up Australia’s first non-fertility-based PCOS centre; Prof Iain Clarke also from Monash, who is the Australian expert on neuropeptide function; and Prof David Kennaway from Adelaide on neuro-metabolic rhythms that underscore health and are disrupted in many chronic diseases.

Bone health day

The RCPA-QAP update and QAP Patient Comments Program proceed on Day 3 where we are privileged to have A/Prof Graham Jones delivering the APFCB travelling lecture. In a shorter program on bone health there are symposia on laboratory testing by Dr Ee Mun Lim from Perth, the role of FGF 23 by co-chair A/Prof Rory Clifton Bligh, and feature speaker Arthur Conigrave, Associate Professor in Medical Biochemistry and Metabolic Medicine at the University of Sydney, whose lab has studied the biochemistry of the calcium-sensing receptor and responses to micronutrients in the diet.

The afternoon symposium will be on vitamin D. Michael Wright will advise labs on the implementation of vitamin D analysis by LCMS in routine testing. This is followed by a “special request for clarity on the deluge of vitamin D literature” to two Australian vitamin D experts (Prof Howard Morris and Prof Chris Florkowski) who will advise on how we make sense of the current frenzy of interest in vitamin D and explaining the true direction in the science of vitamin D.

To complete the ASM Prof Tony Badrick will conduct the first ‘Hypothetical’ at AACB. This event is a special treat for delegates — in true Geoffrey Robertson style, Tony will take the audience through one of the most challenging and stressful scenarios faced by all laboratories in the modern era: what to do with a hyperkalaemia in the dead of night. He will be fearless in the challenges he directs to our ‘live’ panel of experts and he will demand answers where answers don’t exist. For interstate visitors, make sure you book a later flight home so that you do not miss the ‘moral minefield of hyperkalaemia’ at the Sydney ASM.

AACB 53rd Annual Scientific Conference

15–17 September 2015

ANZ Stadium, Sydney Olympic Park

Registration: www.aacb.asn.au/eventsinfo/registration

Image credit: ©iStockphoto.com/STEEX