With great pleasure I welcome you to the City of Groningen. In more than one way there is cause for celebration. Today marks the third lustrum of the annual international sympo- sium on blood transfusion, organized by the Rode Kruis Bloedbank Groningen-Drenthe. In my opinion it has been a remarkable initiative of the Bloedbank, to start organizing a scientific conference, as it did, in 1976. It meant, among others, that in case of success the initiative would grow to be an annual item on the international congress calen- der. It also meant that a possible third lustrum would coincide with the...

J. DE GROOTE One of the most ominous and troublesome complications of the liver disease is the appearance of hemorrhagic phenomena. Many careful clini- cal observations about the relationship of liver function and of bilia- ry tree pathology have been published. A vast amount of research work has been devoted to the subject. The severity of the hemorrhagic disor- der is usually in relation to the liver disease. In mild chronic hepa- titis or short lasting obstruction slight subcutaneous or mucosal blee- ding may (lraw the attention of the patient and the doctor, but they are as such far from...

This book is an edited verbatim account of the proceedings of the Second London Workshop on Red Cell Filtration and Deformability, organised jointly by the Royal Society of Medicine and the Groupe de Travail sur la Filtration Erythrocytaire. The first such London Workshop was held on the occasion of the Second European Conference on Clinical Haemorheology in 1981 and its con- clusions were published in an abbreviated form. The interest in blood filtration as a technique for assessing red cell deformability has continued to increase and there are now several hundred centres around the world...

The practice of transfusing blood started at the bedside but over the last few decades blood transfusion has become more and more a laboratory directed discipline. The emphasis on serology and laboratory controlled measures has made blood transfusion safer and more effective, but laboratory and clinical aspects of the discipline have tended to become increasingly separated. As a result of this separation clinical developments in blood transfusion may not have derived full benefit from the knowledge accrued in blood transfusion services. Over the last five years the Red Cross Blood Bank...

Knowledge of mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of occlusive arterial dis- eases is fundamental for the design of prevention and treatment. A series of studies based on in vitro investigations, the experimental animal and the human being have slowly increased our understanding of cardiovascular diseases and unveiled their secrets to us. Over the last 60 years it has been generally assumed that dietary fats and lipids and the occurrence of atherosclerosis are closely related. Yet, even if epidemiological studies clearly indicate the existence of an association between the amount of...

J.J. Van Loghem Previously to this symposium, five others have taken place in Groningen. The first one in 1976. This yearly scientific happening has continued. It has greatly stimulated the in- terest in blood transfusion and all allied disciplines in our country. It is clear that these meetings are organized not only by a good scientist, but at the same time by a gifted or- ganizer who, as director of the Red Cross Blood Bank Gro- ningen-Drenthe, has shown that the heavy load of daily routine work can very well be combined with a large amount of experimental and clinical research in blood...

This book contains the proceedings of a symposium on the use of synthetic substrates in clinical blood coagulation assays, which was held at the University of Leuven, Belgium, on March 1st, 1980. This meeting was organized in order to exchange and discuss recent develop- ments and applications in this field. Advantages and disadvantages of synthetic substrates are discussed, while expert workers report on their practical experience with the use of chromogenic substrates in routine assays for blood coagulation and fibrinolysis. The indications when to perform antithrombin III, a2-antiplasmin,...

IX The International Seminar on the Immunological System as a Target for Toxic Damage was held at The Commission of the European Communities (CEC) in Luxembourg on 6-9 November 1984. It was organized by the CEC and the International Programme on Chemical Safety of UNEP/ILO/WHO with the support of the u. S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences - USA and with the participation of the International Society of Immunophar macology. These bodies are actively concerned with the scientific and applied aspects of immunotoxicology. The Seminar...

This volume contains all relevant information discussed in a Workshop on thromboplastin calibration held in Leiden, The Netherlands on July 1, 1983. The Workshop was an initiative of the Dutch foundation for a Reference Laboratory for Anticoagulant Control (RELAC) and it was organized by the Boerhaave Committee for postgraduate teaching of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Leiden. The Workshop was held under the auspices of five organizations i. e. the European Community Bureau of Refer ence (BCR), the European Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (ECCLS), the International...