San Servolo Research Articles

Creation of the ILTS Consensus Statements on DCD and Liver Perfusion: Defining the Future of Liver Transplantation by Returning to the Past.

Since the first clinical liver transplants were performed by Starzl at the University of Colorado in 1963,1 there have been several watershed moments in the field, beyond which liver transplantation has transformed: - A definition of irreversible coma was provided by the Ad Hoc Committee at Harvard Medical School in 1968 setting the stage for the recovery of organs from donation after brain death donors, with the donor heart still beating;2 - Cyclosporine was introduced by Calne at the University of Cambridge/Kings College in the late 1970s.3 Its clinical application offered hither too unparalleled improvement in posttransplant survival that liver transplantation passed from the realm of experimental surgery to that of routine clinical practice. This was followed by the establishment of numerous programs and exponential expansion in the number of liver transplants performed worldwide; - Static cold storage with University of Wisconsin solution was introduced in late 1980s4,5 and remains the basis of organ preservation and the standard against which all other forms of preservation are currently compared; - Living donor liver transplantation was started for children in 19896 and adults in the 1990s7,8 and has allowed for the treatment of thousands of additional patients with end-stage liver disease and liver tumors, in particular in countries where deceased donation is limited. Today, there is the potential of another watershed moment that will define the future of the field of liver transplantation. This watershed, however, involves reevaluating the origins of deceased organ donation where oxygenated blood circulation has ceased, representing a return to the very earliest days of deceased organ transplantation. Out of necessity, donation after circulatory death (DCD) donors, the same donors from which the first livers for human transplantation were procured, have progressively moved from the realm of “niche” to the mainstream. Tagging on the heels of marginal DCD livers is perfusion preservation—first studied in the 1920s,9,10 applied when clinical transplant activity began in the 1960s,11,12 largely abandoned with the rise of donation after brain death and “modern” static cold preservation solutions, and finally resurrected by perseverant surgeon-scientists over the course of the past 2 decades to recondition and study and ultimately recover more marginal liver grafts. In recognition of this growing importance of DCD and liver perfusion, the International Liver Transplantation Society (ILTS) in early 2019 tasked the Special Interest Group on DCD, Liver Preservation and Machine Perfusion to create working groups to perform systematic literature reviews and create a set of consensus statements to help guide clinicians and scientists working in liver DCD, preservation, and perfusion. The working groups were comprised of a total of 41 experts (38 surgeons, 1 hepatologist, 1 intensivist, and 1 nephrologist) and were tasked with addressing the following topics: - Donor warm ischemia times in DCD; - Liver donor and recipient selection and risk prediction in DCD; - Liver early allograft dysfunction and complications in DCD; - Regulations and liver procurement surgery in DCD; - Role and types of liver machine perfusion; - Clinical trial design in liver machine perfusion. The groups worked on literature review and drafting of initial statements. A total of 151 professionals from 25 countries met on January 31, 2020, at the San Servolo Convention Center in Venice, Italy, to review and discuss the topics and statements. Despite the worst global pandemic in a century, the ILTS consensus statements were developed and finalized during 2020. Statements were classified according to the GRADE system,13 which reflects both the level of supporting evidence and the strength of the recommendations based on the degree of agreement among experts. After external review, the final results of this work are now being published in sequential issues of Transplantation, the first of which is published in this issue.14 As a final comment, we want to make special mention of the fact that these ILTS Consensus Statements are not only the fruit of over a year of international collaboration but also pay homage to our predecessors who persevered over the course of almost 6 decades to allow DCD and organ perfusion to provide an expanded future for liver transplantation.

The Man Who Crucified Himself: Readings of a Medical Case in Nineteenth-Century Europe by Maria Böhmer

Reviewed by: The Man Who Crucified Himself: Readings of a Medical Case in Nineteenth-Century Europe by Maria Böhmer Alexandra Bamji Maria Böhmer. The Man Who Crucified Himself: Readings of a Medical Case in Nineteenth-Century Europe. Clio Medica, vol. 97. Leiden: Brill, 2019. 313 pp. Ill. (978-90-04-35359-6). One morning in Venice in July 1805, a shoemaker was found hanging out of the window of his room, nailed to a wooden cross. Mattio Lovat was taken down by passersby and admitted to a hospital. He died a year later in a mental asylum. This book traces how Lovat's story became a widely cited case history in nineteenth-century Europe through close analyses of texts referring to Lovat that were published in Italian, French, German, and English. The publications and publication strategy of Cesare Ruggieri, a surgeon who treated Lovat, were central to the diffusion of the case. Ruggieri's narrative first appeared in Italian in 1806 as a twelve-page illustrated text within a compilation. An expanded French edition was published in the same year as a stand-alone text, a German translation in 1807, and another Italian edition in 1814. These narratives discussed Lovat's behavior before and after the events of July 1805, including his self-castration in 1802, another attempted self-crucifixion in 1803, and his refusal of food and "excessive" sunbathing while in the mental asylum of San Servolo. [End Page 527] In evaluating these texts, Böhmer explores connections with the tradition of observationes, arguing that observation was a cognitive endeavor for Ruggieri. The author then uses Stanley Fish's concept of "interpretative communities" to frame her analysis of various professional and popular readings of the case. Although she explicitly seeks to complicate national contexts as an analytical category (p. 19), the emphases of these readings varied in different geographical contexts. Böhmer finds that religious interpretations were prominent in German texts, connected to contemporary concerns with Schwärmerei or religious enthusiasts. These narratives explored whether Lovat was a false prophet in seeking to imitate Christ or the evangelist Matthew and used the case to promote an enlightened and rational understanding of religion. In France, the case contributed to developments in psychiatry, and the aliénistes used Lovat's case as an example of religious madness as they sought to classify mental disorders. In England, Lovat's case became embedded in popular discourse as an example in collections of eccentric lives. In Italy itself, Lovat's case was rarely discussed in the nineteenth century, but became established as a "famous suicide case" (p. 204) due to its inclusion in Alfredo Comandini's encyclopedia of Italian national history, published between 1907 and 1942. The book is clearly written and grounded in relevant scholarship throughout. Although largely a study of the trajectory of a single case history, it includes details of other intriguing cases, such as one published by the same surgeon about the genital ulcers of two sisters who allowed a poodle to lick them for sexual satisfaction. There are useful insights into the membership of medical societies and the role of the presentation and publication of case histories in their activity. The book's analysis of the categorization of religious madness in France is particularly rich and produces an argument of broader importance: that "once an interpretative community is influential enough and has established a certain reading of the case, this interpretation remains relatively stable and unquestioned" (p. 185). The scrutiny of the German translation is also fascinating. Julius Heinrich Gottlieb Schlegel, the translator, added footnotes at points in Ruggieri's narrative which spoke to his own interests, connecting Lovat to case histories on which he had published. As Böhmer explains, Schlegel used his translation and commentary both to "engage scientifically with Ruggieri" and "to display his specialist knowledge and expertise" (p. 110). All the same, while Böhmer engages with debates about publication and the professionalization of medicine, I would have liked more critical reflection on the idea of professionalism. There might also have been scope for more discussion of the implications of the author's analysis of Ruggieri's illustrations and their subsequent reproduction for...

Pharmacy-based interventions to increase vaccine uptake: report of a multidisciplinary stakeholders meeting

BackgroundDespite the existence of efficacious vaccines, the burden of vaccine-preventable diseases remains high and the potential health benefits of paediatric, adolescent and adult vaccination are not being achieved due to suboptimal vaccine coverage rates.Main body of abstractBased on emerging evidence that pharmacy-based vaccine interventions are feasible and effective, the European Interdisciplinary Council for Ageing (EICA) brought together stakeholders from the medical and pharmacy professions, the pharmaceutical industry, patient/ageing organisations and health authorities to consider the potential for pharmacy-based interventions to increase vaccine uptake. We report here the proceedings of this 3-day meeting held in March 2018 in San Servolo island, Venice, Italy, focussing firstly on examples from countries that have introduced pharmacy-based vaccination programmes, and secondly, listing the barriers and solutions proposed by the discussion groups.ConclusionsA range of barriers to vaccine uptake have been identified, affecting all target groups, and in various countries and healthcare settings. Ease of accessibility is a potentially modifiable determinant in vaccine uptake, and thus, improving the diversity of settings where vaccines can be provided to adults, for example by enabling community pharmacists to vaccinate, may increase the number of available opportunities for vaccination.

The ILTS Consensus Conference on NAFLD/NASH and Liver Transplantation: Setting the Stage.

The ILTS Consensus Conference on NAFLD/NASH and Liver Transplantation: Setting the Stage.

Book Reviews

Nejat Anbarci of Deakin University reviews “The Economics of Conflict: Theory and Empirical Evidence”, by Karl Wärneryd. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Nine papers, originally presented at a CESifo Summer Institute workshop in San Servolo in July 2011, present a rational-choice perspective on conflict using methodological approaches that range from the game theoretic to the experimental. Papers discuss the strategic aspects of fighting in alliances; fiscal equalization and political conflict; natural resources, social conflict, and the poverty trap; power structure and the stability of regimes; the probability of military rule in Africa, 1970 to 2007; sociopolitical conflict and economic performance in Bolivia; occupational choices and insurgency in Afghanistan's provinces; social unrest in the wake of IMF structural adjustment programs; and social preferences of excombatants—survey and experimental evidence from postwar Tajikistan. Wärneryd is Associate Professor of Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics.”

Prilozi ranom opusu Giovannija Bonazze u Kopru, Veneciji i Padovi te bilješka za njegove sinove Francesca i Antonija

Stylistic changes in a sculptor’s oeuvre are simultaneously a challenge and a cause of dilemmas for researchers. This is particularly true when attempting to identify the early works of a sculptor while the influence of his teacher was still strong. This article focuses on the Venetian sculptor Giovanni Bonazza (Venice, 1654 – Padua, 1736) and attributes to him numerous new works both in marble and in wood, all of which are of uniform, high quality. Bonazza’s teacher was the sculptor Michele Fabris, called l’Ongaro (Bratislava, c.1644 – Venice, 1684), to whom the author of the article attributes a marble statue of Our Lady of the Rosary on the island of San Servolo, in the Venetian lagoon, which has until now been ascribed to Bonazza. The marble bust of Giovanni Arsenio Priuli, the podestat of Koper, is also attributed to the earliest phase of Bonazza’s work; it was set up on the façade of the Praetorian Palace at Koper in 1679. This bust is the earliest known portrait piece sculpted by the twenty-five-year old artist. The marble relief depicting the head of the Virgin, in the hospice of Santa Maria dei Derelitti, ought to be dated to the 1690s. The marble statue of the Virgin and Child located on the garden wall by the Ponte Trevisan bridge in Venice can be recognized as Bonazza’s work from the early years of the eighteenth century and as an important link in the chronological chain of several similar statues he sculpted during his fruitful career. Bonazza is also the sculptor of the marble busts of the young St John and Mary from the library of the monastery of San Lazzaro on the island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni in the Venetian lagoon, but also the bust of Christ from the collection at Castel Thun in the Trentino-Alto Adige region; they can all be dated to the 1710s or the 1720s. The article pays special attention to a masterpiece which has not been identified as the work of Giovanni Bonazza until now: the processional wooden crucifix from the church of Sant’Andrea in Padua, which can be dated to the 1700s and which, therefore, precedes three other wooden crucifixes that have been identified as his. Another work attributed to Bonazza is a large wooden gloriole with clouds, cherubs and a putto, above the altar in the Giustachini chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine at Padua. The article attributes two stone angels and a putto on the attic storey of the high altar in the church of Santa Caterina on the island of Mazzorbo in the Venetian lagoon to Giovanni’s son Francesco Bonazza (Venice, c.1695 – 1770). Finally, Antonio Bonazza (Padua, 1698 – 1763), the most talented and well-known of Giovanni Bonazza’s sons, is identified as the sculptor of the exceptionally beautiful marble tabernacle on the high altar of the parish church at Kali on the island of Ugljan. The sculptures which the author of the article attributes to the Bonazza family and to Giovanni Bonazza’s teacher, l’Ongaro, demonstrate that the oeuvres of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Venetian masters are far from being closed and that we are far from knowing the final the number of their works. Moreover, it has to be said that not much is known about Giovanni’s works in wood which is why every new addition to his oeuvre with regard to this medium is important since it fills the gaps in a complex and stylistically varied production of this great Venetian sculptor.

Prilozi ranom opusu Giovannija Bonazze u Kopru, Veneciji i Padovi te bilješka za njegove sinove Francesca i Antonija

Stilske su mijene u opusu nekog kipara za istraživače podjednako izazov i izvor nedoumica. To se posebno može primijeniti na istraživanje i pokušaj prepoznavanja mladenačkih radova određenog majstora u trenutku kada su još jaki utjecaji njegova učitelja. Također, nedovoljno iskustvo u svladavanju složenijih skulptorskih zadatka za majstora na početku karijere, često onemogućuje ispravnu valorizaciju njegova djela. Međutim, pojam mladenačkih ostvarenja u opusima kipara djelatnih u Veneciji Sei i Settecenta treba se uzeti s oprezom. Naime, za većinu su majstora slabo poznati njihovi učitelji, a još slabije djela iz razdoblja kada su sigurno već bili samostalni majstori, odnosno tijekom njihovih dvadesetih i tridesetih godina. Slična se situacija mogla sve do nedavno zamijetiti i u ranom opusu kipara Giovannija Bonazze (Venecija, 1654. – Padova, 1736.) budući da je arhivski najranije zabilježen 1684. kada je kipar imao već trideset godina. Iscrpnim proučavanjem cjelokupnog Giovannijevog opusa, Simeone Guerriero s pravom je predložio da bi potpisani reljef s prikazom Navještenja iz župne crkve Svetog Mateja u Dobro-ti u Boki Kotorskoj trebalo smatrati najranijim kiparevim djelom nastalim oko 1679. godine, kada kipar kleše i dvije Sibile te putta nad ulaznim portalom venecijanske crkve Santa Maria del Giglio.

Cantus Planus in Venice

Nearly a hundred chant scholars from all over the world met at the island of San Servolo in the Venetian Lagoon from 28 July to 1 August 2014 to attend the 17th meeting of the International Musicological Society’s Study Group ‘Cantus Planus’. The venue, owned by Venice International University, is located a ten-minute vaporetto ride from the centre of Venice, far enough from the overwhelming crowds of tourists. Monks and nuns inhabited San Servolo during the Middle Ages, and consequently plainchant was practised there for years. If we ignore the catering of its main restaurant (some attendees confessed that it made them miss even the food provided at previous International Congresses on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan) and the fact that San Servolo had no other restaurant (or any other establishment for that matter) open after 6.30pm to compensate, this venue would have been absolutely perfect. Over 80 scholars presented the most recent findings of their investigations in a programme consisting of 29 sessions held in parallel, two at a time. A strong presence of Italian topics was noticeable from the beginning—the inspiring inaugural session, featuring papers by internationally renowned scholars, contrasted Peter Jeffery’s findings on the early rite of Venice with vestiges of Venetian influence in a 15th-century Lisbon Order of Canons traced by Manuel Pedro Ferreira. Attendees were also greeted with a splendid concert at San Servolo Church in which Letizia Butterin performed Giovanni Battista Fasolo’s Missa Beatae Mariae Virginis, ‘in cantu gregoriano et organo alternatim’, displaying remarkable skill in both organ playing and chanting.

Three Poems

Denis Mair holds an MA in Chinese and has taught at Whitman College and the University of Pennsylvania. He has translated autobiographies by the philosopher Feng Youlan (Hawaii Univ. Press) and the Buddhist monk Shih Chen-hua (SUNY Albany Press). His translation of criticism by Zhu Zhu was published by Hunan Fine Arts Press. He has also translated essays by architect Tang Keyang and art historian Lü Peng for exhibitions they curated in 2009 and 2011, respectively, at the Venice Biennial (See Lü Peng, From San Servolo to Amalfi, Charta Books, Milan, 2011.).Denis has translated poetry by Yan Li, Mai Cheng, Meng Lang, Luo Ying, and many others. His essays on the Book of Changes are written from a poet's point of view (See www.yijingpoetics.net). His own poetry collection, Man Cut in Wood, was published in Los Angeles by Valley Poets collective in 2004. Planning committees he has served on include the Walla Walla Poetry Party, the Qinghai Lake International Poetry Festival, and the Beijing Mid-Autumn Poetry Festival. He has been invited to poetry events all over China, including the “Frozen Waterfall Festival” in Sichuan Province and the “Peach Blossom and Coal Festival” in Anhui Province. He is the winner of the 2012 Poet's Award from Songzhuang Contemporary Art Center in Beijing. He was the sole American participant in the Second World Poets' Congress in Iran in 2011, and was hosted by the Cross-Cultural Translation Institute in Turkey in March 2013.

Ospedali psichiatrici e musealizzazione: i casi di Venezia e Milano

The objective of this paper is to assess and compare two very particular museums, the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Paolo Pini (Mapp-Paolo Pini contemporary art museum) in Milan and the Museo del Manicomio di San Servolo (San Servolo mental asylum museum in Venice). The Mapp is a contemporary art museum in which the pavilions containing the hospital wards have been used to house works of art. The San Servolo museum, on the other hand, contains a rich collection of records and medical and scientific exhibits which trace the history of the psychiatric hospital. Both these institutions are located inside former psychiatric hospitals and constitute a valid attempt to transform environments and architectures linked to the painful events of a still recent past.

Biomarker responses and contamination levels in the clam Ruditapes philippinarum for biomonitoring the Lagoon of Venice (Italy)

A multibiomarker approach was used to assess effects of environmental contaminants in the clam Ruditapes philippinarum from the Lagoon of Venice. Bivalves were collected in 8 sites of the Lagoon (Campalto, Marghera, Palude del Monte, Valle di Brenta, Cà Roman, San Servolo, Fusina and Canale Dese), differently influenced by both anthropogenic impact and natural conditions. The following biomarkers were chosen: total haemocyte count and lysozyme activity in cell-free haemolymph as immunomarkers, acetylcholinesterase activity in gills as a biomarker of exposure to neurotoxic compounds, vitellogenin-like protein levels in both digestive gland and cell-free haemolymph as a biomarker of exposure to estrogenic compounds, and survival-in-air widely used to evaluate general stress conditions in clams. In addition, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), 1,1,1-Trichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethane (p,p'-DDT) and its breakdown products (DDE, DDD), hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) were measured in clams. Results demonstrated that the integrated approach between biomarkers and chemical analyses in R. philippinarum is a useful tool in biomonitoring the Lagoon of Venice. The biomarker responses suggested quite similar contamination levels in the entire Lagoon, although the relative impact of differing classes of pollutants changed among sites according to potential sources, as chemical analyses demonstrated. Overall, among the sampling sites investigated, Palude del Monte can represent an environmental risk area, bearing in mind its peculiar use for clam culture.

CHARITIES: THE RECURRING QUESTIONS

This special issue of FAM is based on a selection of papers from the EIASM research workshop on the Challenges of Managing the Third Sector which was held at the International University of Venice on San Servolo island on March 12–14, 2007. In previous research workshops in this series, there has been debate on the positioning of different disciplines which are deployed in the investigation of the challenges facing charitable organisations. These considerations have shown the debt owed to both economic and sociological thinking in past studies and the emergence of a more managerial perspective in understanding these distinctive organisations (Helmig, Jegers and Lapsley, 2004). Previous research workshops have also discussed the vitality of the Third Sector, as evidenced by the emergence of charitable organisations in new areas of activity such as credit unions, certain persistent challenges such as the forms of information necessary for monitoring charities and for prospective donors, the use of resources by charities, and the adoption of more professional management techniques (Helmig, Hyndman, Jegers and Lapsley, 2006). Underlying the distinctive nature of charities and charitable giving are fundamental challenges of the quantum of funds available to increasing numbers of charities and the dangers this poses for their continued existence (Lapsley, 2004), as further evidenced by a longitudinal study of Irish voluntary hospitals (Robbins and Lapsley, 2008). This special issue takes forward these recurring questions and adds to our understanding of the tensions confronting the charitable sector in action. Hyndman and McDonnell (2009, this issue) address the matter of charities governance. This is a major issue for charities. In the face of adverse publicity in the case of charitable funding scandals there is a need for charities to demonstrate that they are not only applying the highest standards to the resources at their disposal but they can be clearly seen to be behaving appropriately. This is of concern to donors, to those who rely on charitable services and to governments which increasingly seek to supplement their public sector services with voluntary organisations. However, the achievement of ‘good governance’ is not so straightforward. Hyndman and McDonnell (op.cit.) map out a research agenda to address this issue. Breen (2009, this issue) also demonstrates the unintended consequences of

DIVISION XII / COMMISSION 41 / WORKING GROUP HISTORICAL INSTRUMENTS

The Historical Instruments Working Group (WG-HI) and Commission 41 started planning an interdisciplinary conference titled Astronomy and its instruments before and after Galileo since January 2007. This conference, as an IYA2009 initiative, aims “to highlight mankind's path toward an improved knowledge of the sky using mathematical and mechanical tools as well as monuments and buildings, giving rise, in doing so, to scientific astronomy”. Commission 46 and Commission 55 also support this conference, to be held on the Isle of San Servolo, Venice (Italy), 27 September – 3 October 2009. As a fact of history, it was in Venice that Galileo was advised and got material (glass) to make his telescope, and in Venice he presented an working instrument to Venetian Doge in August 1609. The conference is co-sponsored by IAU as a Joint Symposium with the INAF – Astronomical Observatory of Padova, Italy.

Biofuels and Sustainable Development

The goals and concerns surrounding the debate over government policies related to the greater use and production of biofuels were addressed in an executive session convened by the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the Venice International University on May 19th and 20th, 2008. The session attracted more than 25 of the world's leading experts from the fields of policy, science, and business to San Servolo Island for an intensive two day session (see Appendix A for a list of the participants). The discussions were off-the-record, with each participant present in his or her own capacity, rather than representing an organization. The session was one in a series on Grand Challenges of the Sustainability Transition organized by the Sustainability Science Program at Harvard University with the generous support of the Italian Ministry for Environment, Land and Sea. This particular session was held as part of the Ministry's ongoing work with the Global Bioenergy Program established at the G8 Gleneagles Summit in 2005.

Fourth Conference on Epileptogenesis, May 23–26, 2007, Pisa, Italy

Fourth Conference on Epileptogenesis, May 23–26, 2007, Pisa, Italy

ILAE President's midterm report

ILAE President's midterm report

CMB anisotropies: Their discovery and utilization

This article is a written and modified version of a talk presented at the conference `A Century of Cosmology' held at San Servolo, Venice, Italy, in August 2007. The talk focuses on some of the cosmology history leading to the discovery and exploitation of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) Radiation anisotropies. We have made tremendous advances first in the development of the techniques to observe these anisotropies and in observing and interpreting them to extract their contained cosmological information. CMB anisotropies are now a cornerstone in our understanding of the cosmos and our future progress in the field. This is an outcome that Dennis Sciama hoped for and encouraged.

Tracing James: Introduction

Tracing James:Introduction Susan M. Griffin This special issue of the Henry James Review publishes papers presented at the Henry James Society's 2005 International Conference, "Tracing James." My brief introduction cannot hope to capture a sense of the conference's splendid setting in Venice; I can only echo James himself: "Venice. It is a great pleasure to write the word; but I am not sure there is not a certain impudence in pretending to add anything to it." However, the essays included here do reflect the meeting's atmosphere of lively exchange among James scholars from across the globe and provide a sampling of the varied, excellent, and sometimes surprising scholarship presented on Isola di San servolo and at Ca' Dolfin. I'm delighted in particular to be able to include the plenary talks by Colm Tóibín, Leo Bersani, and Alide Cagidemetrio, who trace James and his influences across Ireland, France, and Italy; through fiction, film, and song; in persons, places, palaces, and legends. "Tracing James" was the second international conference held by the James Society, following the inaugural "Henry James Today" meeting in Paris. We are already looking forward to the third, to be held in Summer 2008 in Newport, Rhode Island. There, Henry James walked and talked, wrote and read, under the "wonderful sky" with its "unexpected resemblance to the sky of Venice." Following this map of Jamesian association, we will take up the strands of our ongoing conversation about James's work and world. Copyright © 2006 The Johns Hopkins University Press

Special section: ISMRM perfusion workshop invited papers

THE FOLLOWING 12 papers on perfusion MRI were written and submitted by the invited speakers of the ISMRM Workshop “Quantitative Cerebral Perfusion Imaging using MRI: A Technical Perspective” given in San Servolo, Venice, Italy on 21–23 March, 2004. These papers are derived and expanded from the written syllabus of that workshop, and were peer-reviewed and edited as with all published JMRI articles. The aims of the workshop and invited papers were to critically describe and review current methods of quantitative cerebral perfusion imaging using MRI, to evaluate the different methodologies, to describe new and recent developments, and to assess clinical and basic research applications. The workshop focused on cerebral perfusion MRI rather than including other tissues and organs due to the unique technical and tracer-kinetic issues in cerebral perfusion MRI. The workshop and invited papers also focused primarily on the two most common methods for quantitative cerebral perfusion MRI: dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) and arterial spin labeling (ASL). The workshop was structured as nine oral sessions (three DSC, two ASL, and four combined DSC-ASL sessions). Each oral session had one or two invited talks, from which the following invited papers were derived. The first DSC and first ASL sessions were on theoretical bases of the techniques, including critical scientific assessment of the methods, assumptions, sources of error, and limitations of each technique. The next DSC and ASL sessions were on data acquisition and analysis. These sessions were followed by a combined session that covered comparison and validation of the methods against each other and against other non-MR perfusion methods, as well as the relative advantages, disadvantages, and roles of the two methods. Two more combined sessions followed covering basic science applications and clinical applications. Finally, the last session covered new ASL and DSC imaging methods. The listing of sessions can be found at the archive of the workshop web site http://www.ismrm.org/workshops/Perfusion_Imaging/. These session themes are all represented in the following invited papers. A more detailed description of the sessions and workshop is given in the MR Pulse, Volume 11, Number 2, August 2004 at http://www.ismrm.org/pulse/index.html. Many technical issues, challenges, innovations, and solutions were discussed in the workshop, and are discussed in greater detail in the following articles. These papers show the richness of the current field of perfusion MRI and the promise for future innovations and solutions. We hope that both researchers new to the field and established researchers find these invited papers useful in giving a comprehensive view of the technical aspects of quantitative cerebral perfusion MRI. We thank Drs. A. Bizzi and S. Mori on the workshop Organizing Committee; J. Tiemann, R. Goldstein, R. Kravitz, A. de Lemos, S. Liebscher, and K. Minear of the ISMRM staff, Dr. F. Nisii of Venice International University (VIU), and A. Bizzi for workshop planning; Drs. D. Alsop and E. Wong for help with reviewing abstracts; and J. Alger, E. Barbier, P. Barker, A. Connelly, A. de Crespigny, J. Detre, D. Gadian, C. Grandin, P. Jezzard, J. Perkiö, O. Wu, F. Ye, J. Zhong, and several invited speakers for chairing sessions. We thank all the meeting participants who gave talks and posters, and all the meeting attendees for participating in the meeting. We also thank D. Romo, D. Memisevic, K. Schupp, M. Kotys, J. Memisevic and K. Pusczek for help with planning manuscript formatting and editing; and M. Tanner, Dr. C.L. Partain, and the JMRI and Wiley staffs for coordinating publication of these articles. Finally, we thank the Corporate Sponsors: Invivo/MDE, Pfizer, Siemens, Sun Microsystems, SurgiVet, and Tyco Healthcare/Mallinckrodt for financial support of the workshop.

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF NEUROLOGICAL SCIENCES, 15th Annual Symposium of the Child Neurology Section, San Servolo - Venice, Italy, June 17-18, 2005, Meeting Convenor: Paolo Curatolo, MD

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF NEUROLOGICAL SCIENCES, 15th Annual Symposium of the Child Neurology Section, San Servolo - Venice, Italy, June 17-18, 2005, Meeting Convenor: Paolo Curatolo, MD