Editor-in-chief
Grazyna Sypniewska

Borut Bolič
University Medical Center
Lubljana, Slovenia

Rajiv Erasmus
Dept. of Chemical Pathology
Tygerberg, South Africa

Nilda E. Fink
Universidad Nacional de La Plata 
La Plata, Argentina

Danyal Syed
Ryancenter
New York, USA

Publisher: IFCC

The JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF CLINICAL CHEMISTRY (eJIFCC) is an electronic journal with frequent updates on its home page. Our articles, debates, reviews and editorials are addressed to clinical laboratorians. Besides offering original scientific thought in our featured columns, we provide pointers to quality resources on the World Wide Web. The journal will publish general news articles, IFCC publicity/news, educational material and have a letters section.

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EDITORIAL - CONFERENCE ON PRE- AND POSTGRADUATE EDUCATION IN LABORATORY MEDICINE AND RECOGNITION OF PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
Arleta Zaremba, Aneta Mrozek, Grazyna Sypniewska

LABORATORY MEDICINE SPECIALIZATION TEACHING AND TRAINING IN ITALY WITH A GLANCE TO SOME EUROPEAN AND NON-EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
Gian Cesare Guidi

REGISTRATION OF MEDICAL LABORATORY TECHNOLOGIST QUALIFIED ABROAD
Per Haugum

CURRENT PRE- AND POST-GRADUATE VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN LABORATORY MEDICINE AND MICROBIOLOGY IN POLAND
Mieczyslaw Wozniak, Henryk Owczarek

EDUCATION IN MEDICAL BIOCHEMISTRY IN SERBIA
Nada Majkic-Sing

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THE 5th EFCC SYMPOSIUM FOR BALKAN REGION
Contributed by Prof. Dr. Nada Majkic-Singh, President of the Society of Medical Biochemists of Serbia

The Society of Medical Biochemists of Serbia and the Institute of Medical Biochemistry of the Clinical Centre of Serbia jointly organized the Fifth EFCC Symposium for the Balkan Region entitled “Proteins: from electrophoresis to proteomics” in Belgrade, from October 8-19, 2009. The Symposium was organized under the auspices of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC), European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFCC) and the Balkan Clinical Laboratory Federation (BCLF), as well as under the Ministry of Science of the Republic of Serbia. The Society, as the member of IFCC and EFCC, greatly appreciates the role it has in the continuing development of our discipline according to the IFCC mission and the Strategic plan. The symposium coordinators were Prof. Dr Nada Majkić-Singh, Chair of the Meeting, and Professor Victor Blaton, EFCC Past President.

The idea of this EFCC Symposium was to show how the continuum of different electrophoretic techniques for protein profiling can contribute to proteomics by allowing the detection and measurement of a wide array of proteins, and the definition of their structures and functions.

The proteome is defined as the entire array of proteins, including their post-translational modifications, produced by an organism or system. Thus the proteome will vary with time and physiological or pathological events, or stresses, that a cell or organism undergoes. Proteome analysis is emerging as a potentially powerful tool to decipher pathophysiological processes, resulting in the establishment of the field of clinical proteomics. One of the main goals of clinical proteomics is to discover biomarkers for diseases in biological fluids and tissues. The complexity of the proteome requires a separation step by different electrophoretic techniques before the analysis by mass spectrometry.

The 1st part of the 5th Symposium covered the clinical utility of serum protein electrophoresis (Xavier Bossuyt, Belgium), agarose gel electrophoresis and capillary electrophoresis in clinical chemistry (Jean-Francois Giot, France), the use of lab-on-chip electrophoresis and other methods in protein profiling (Olgica Trenčevska, Macedonia), MADGE-Microplate array diagonal gel electrophoresis (Sanja Stanković, Serbia), isoelectrofocusing and PCR amplification-reverse hybridization assay in evaluation of alfa-1-antitrypsin deficiency (Anđelo Beletić, Serbia) and application of proteomics techniques in biomarker discovery (Antonia Vlahou, Greece).

The 2nd part of Symposium covered the urinary proteome analysis using capillary electrophoresis coupled to mass spectrometry as a powerful tool in clinical diagnosis, prognosis and therapy evaluation (Harald Mischak, Germany), glucocorticoid receptors in health and disease (Gordana Matić, Serbia) and molecular diagnosis of phenylketonuria: from detective protein to disease-causing gene mutation (Sonja Pavlović, Serbia).

The following lectures covered experiences in clinical protein arrays: biochip cardiac array technology (Grazyna Sypniewska, Poland), cytokine and growth factor array (Hans J. van Pelt, The Netherlands), colorectal cancer array – simultaneous analysis of DNA alternations with biochip array technology (Andrew Cartwright, UK) and multiparameter testing of colorectal cancer (Bernhard Risse). Jim Thorn (United Kingdom) presented the use of the Analis CDT assay for screening for alcohol abuse.

The organization of the 5th EFCC Symposium for Balkan Region was the result of work and effort of coordinators and of the Organizational Committees. More then 300 participants from Serbia and Balkan counutries participated actively in the Symposium. During the Symposium a permanent exibition of equipment and reagents organized by different companies has been display.

All lectures are published in Journal of Medical Biochemistry 2009; 28: 221-326 (www.versita.com) the National Journal of the Society of Medical Biochemists of Serbia.


Lecturers of the 5th Symposium for Balkan Region(From left to right): Anđelo Beletić, Olgica Trenčevska, Sanja Stanković, Nada Majkić-Singh, Antonia Vlahou, Victor Blaton, Andrew Cartwright, Svetlana Ignjatović, Jim Thorn, Xavier Bossuyt

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INFORMATION ON THE 16th CONGRESS OF MEDICAL BIOCHEMISTS OF SERBIA
AND THE 4TH EFCC SYMPOSIUM FOR BALKAN REGION

By Professor Dr. Nada Majkic-Singh
President of the Society of Medical Biochemists of Serbia
And the Scientific Committees of the Congress and Symposium

The 16th Congress of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine with international participation have been organized by the Society of Medical Biochemists of Serbia and the Institute of Medical Biochemistry of the Clinical Centre of Serbia. The Congress was organized under the auspices of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC), European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFCC) and the Balkan Clinical Laboratory Federation (BCLF), as well as the Ministry of Science of the Republic of Serbia. As part of the Congress, on the 19th and 20th of June 2008 the 4th EFCC Symposium for the Balkan Region entitled The Impact of the Preanalytical Phase on the Quality of Laboratory Results was held.

Photo: Professor Dr. Nada Majkic-Singh

Photo (legend): Lecturers of 4th EFCC Symposium for Balkan Region
From left to right: N. Majkić-Singh, A. Stanković, G. Lipi, L. Drago, S. Ignjatović,
C. Mattiuzzi, S. Green and G.L. Salvagno

The organization of the Congress was the result of work and effort of all the members of the Scientific and Organizational Committees, comprised of distinguished local experts in this area. More than 400 participants from Serbia and some 100 specialists from abroad participated actively in the work of the Congress.

The plenary sections of the 16th Congress of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine have been dedicated to the latest findings in the field of biochemical markers of various diseases and states, namely to the importance of markers of atherosclerosis, cardiac markers in patient treatment, biomarkers of inflammation and apoptosis, markers of ischemic stroke, certain forms of apolipoproteins, bone markers – their nature and application, markers of kidney diseases, prostate cancer and urinary tract tumor, diabetes, and up-to-date patient treatment in intensive care. The influence of oxidative stress on the appearance of a disease, as well the role of functional foods in the promotion of health has been also deliberated.

A separate section was dedicated to the application of quality indicators in medical laboratories relating to sensitivity and accuracy of the results, ways of avoiding errors in laboratories and the process of laboratory accreditation as a means of avoiding and diminishing errors and improving the general quality of the laboratory work. Besides the presentations by local experts, in the program of the Congress participations took the numbers of distinguished lecturers from the United States of America, Switzerland, Germany, Hungary, England, Italy, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bulgaria and the Republic of Srpska.

The majority of registered participants presented the results of their scientific and expert research as part of the poster presentations which included cardiovascular diseases and cardiac markers, methods in clinical chemistry, proteins and enzymes, lipids and lipoproteins and free topics.

The topics selected covered in a multidisciplinary fashion the field of laboratory medicine and other medical sciences. The multidisciplinary character of the Congress is further accentuated by the fact that many experts of various profiles took active part with their work. Therefore, like in the previous years, this Congress allowed for the latest scientific and expert results to be presented and for experiences to be exchanges, which will contribute to the promotion of contemporary laboratory practice.

During the Congress the 4th EFCC Symposium for Balkan Region held under the titled The Impact of the Preanalytical Phase on the Quality of Laboratory Results, where the latest findings regarding the application and significance of the impact of preanalytical factors on the quality of laboratory results have been presented with the goal of preventing preanalytical errors that can cause damage to the patients as well as the entire laboratory procedure. Safety measures during the process of collecting biological samples from patients e.g. during venipunctures, for the purpose of protecting the patients also have been discussed. Besides presentations on the impact of the preanalytical phase in hematology, sample stability, the recommendations and ways of educating staff regarding the quality of diagnostic samples have been reviewed. In order to achieve the best possible results, the participants presented the new approaches in laboratory medicine dealing with the application and philosophy behind the LEAN and SIX SIGMA techniques.

Experts from Europe (Italy, Germany, and Belgium) and America participated in the Symposium. The main tittles of the presentations and lecturers have been: Impact of preanalytical variables on specimen quality (Sol Green, USA), Misidentification and other preanalytical errors (Pierangelo Bonnini, Italy), Standards of safety in blood collection (Camilla Mattiuzzi, Italy), Preanalytical phase in haematology (Giuseppe Banfi, Italy), Governance of the preanalytical phase: error detection (Giuseppe Lippi). Quality of diagnostic samples, recommendations and educational tools (Walter Guder, Germany), Sample stability (Gian Luca Salvagno, Italy), and Application of Lean and Six Sigma to the preanalytical phase (Ana Stanković, USA).

The experiences in the pre-analytical phase technology in medical laboratories in Balkan region have been presented by Zorica Šumarac (Serbia), Manole Cojocaru (Romania), Anna Tzontcheva (Bulgaria), Aggeliki Stathaki (Greece), Gheorghe Benga (Romania), George D. Maropoulos (Greece). Round table discussions on the topics presented served as the basis for reaching conclusions and guidelines in this area of laboratory medicine with the aim of achieving the best possible results to the benefit of patient treatment.

During the course of the Congress and Symposium a permanent exhibition of equipment and reagents has been on display, and many practical workshops have been organized by different companies.

As Society of Medical Biochemists of Serbia was appointed by EFCC as organizer of the Symposium for the Balkan Region and University of Belgrade (Serbia) the EFCC Educational Centre, Professor Victor Blaton, EFCC President during the opening of the Symposium presented the lecture on the EFCC activities and a new vision of the development of clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine in Europe.

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