6th National Conference of ISBMR

6th National Conference of Indian Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ISBMR) was held at AIIMS, New Delhi on 13-14 August 2010. Over 150 doctors of various specialties and from various parts of country including residents took keen part in the discussions. The faculty included some luminaries from India & Abroad.

Names of the foreign speakers are:-

• D Sudhaker Rao
• Subhash Kukreja
• Prof. Jan Stepan

They shared their knowledge with all present enthusiastically and everyone gained from the experience.

The conference was supported by:-

• Platinum Sponsors – Eris Life Sciences & Eli Lilly Company Pvt. Ltd.
• Gold Sponsors – Ranabaxy Ortholands & Novartis India Ltd.
• Sponsors – Medsol, Lupin Diabetes Care, ADS Medical Systems

Besides normal lunch and tea etc. which were served at the sight of the conference, a lovely dinner was hosted kind courtesy by Maj Gen. R.K.Marwaha, President of ISBMR at Akash Airforce officers mess next to India gate. The ambience, the service, the food and the overall effect of the dinner was appreciated by everyone.

Scientific details of the conference are as follows:

13th August, 2010

The conference started with lecture of Dinesh Dhanwal who spoke about relationship of vitamin D with cardiovascular outcomes which was followed by deliberation from ISBMR president RK Marwaha on skeletal and non-skeletal effects of vitamin D. The third lecture in this session was delivered by Ambrish Mithal on the current status of what is considered to be optimal levels of vitamin D, which was also based on the IOF Position Statement which he had steered. Each lecture was followed by 10 mins discussion.

Second session started with lecture by Jan Stepan on monitoring response to osteoporosis treatment and he shared his experience of use of biochemical markers in management of osteoporosis. AC Ammini spoke about latest development in the field of SERMS with current status of ongoing trial of SERMS. Subhash Kukreja delivered lecture on current status of bisphosphonates and last lecture of the day was given by Jan Stepan on current developments in the fields of anabolic therapy specially about teriparatide.

14th August, 2010

First session started with three difficult case presentations. First case of bisphosphonates therapy and fracture was discussed by Sanjay Bhadada. Sushil Gupta presented a very interesting case of hypoparathyroidism managed by teriparatide. This was followed by case of adult celiac disease causing multiple vertebral fractures with familial aggregation presented by Rajesh Khadgawat. All cases were well appreciated. Audience actively participated in all three cases with very useful discussion and advice for management.

Second session of the day started with lecture of Nikhil Tandon about vitamin D status in elderly population. This was followed by a lecture by D Sudhaker Rao on clinical relevance of isolated vitamin D measurement without PTH. Vijaylakshmi Bhatia discussed the current status of vitamin D supplementation strategies especially in Indian population.

Third post launch session on Day 2 was free paper presentation. Six papers were presented, with each speaker being given 8 mins for presentation followed by 2 mins for discussion. Drs D Sudhaker Rao and S Kukreja were judges for this session. This was followed by lecture from Eesh Bhatia on normative data of BMD in Indians. D Sudhaker Rao discussed about gender and geographic differences on disease expression on primary hyperparathyroidism. The final lecture was delivered by R Goswami on hypoparathyroidism.

Bone Health, Best Oral Paper & Best Poster Award

Ambrish Mithal, chief advisor, ISBMR and Rajesh Khadgawat, organizing secretary, announced the awards for bone health, best paper and poster competition. The awards were given away by the President, ISBMR.

Bone Health Award :

• First Prize Rs. 75000/- to Dr. Sudhanshu Dev Singh
• Second Prize Rs. 50000/- to Dr. Shivaprasad C

Best Paper :

Correlation between BMD measured by peripheral and central DXA in healthy Indian children and adolescents aged 10-18 years. Shivaprasad C*, Raman K Marwaha#, Nikhil Tandon*, Kalaivani Mani$, Ratnesh Kanwar#, Kuntal Bhadra#, Satveer Singh# *Department of Endocrinology, AIIMS; #Department of Endocrinology and Thyroid Research Centre, INMAS; $Department of Biostatistics, AIIMS

Best Poster:

Krt- 14 regulates matrix mineralization during differentiation in primary osteoblast cells 1Vikram Khedgikar *, 1Jyoti Gautam, 1Ritu Trivedi, 1Division of Endocrinology, Central Drug Research Institute, Chattar Manzil, Lucknow, India.

The conference was followed by a General Body and Executive committee meeting of ISBMR. It was decided to take the next conference to Chennai in the South where Dr. Usha Sriram has promised to be the host.

ISBMR wishes all its participants faculty members and sponsors the best of luck and best of everything in life.