Klinisk Biokemi i Norden Nr 2, vol. 19, 2007 - page 34-35

34
| 2 | 2007
Klinisk Biokemi i Norden
35
| 2 | 2007
Klinisk Biokemi i Norden
I have started my every IFCC
columns with weather reports.
It is mid May when I am writing
this column and it is raining.
The snow has already melted,
but the temperature has been
below +10C for a few weeks
now. Luckily last weekend the
weather was a bit warmer at
least in Southern Finland. On
Saturday night the Eurovision Song Contest was
held in the Helsinki Arena. This was the first time
ever this Contest was in Finland, after the last
year’s victory of the Finnish monsters Lordi. I
IFCC News
Päivi Laitinen
E-post: paivi.h.laitinen@ppshp.fi
was very proud to be a Finn when watching this
spectacular show on TV on Saturday evening. The
reason the weather conditions were important is
that there was a huge TV screen in the Senate
Square in Helsinki and about 25 000 people had
gathered there to watch the Contest. I hope you
all saw that fantastic show. And if I can say my
opinion of the songs I still think that the first
performer was the best, and it was the last year’s
winner Lordi!
17
th
IFCC-FESCC European Congress of Clinical
Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine EuroMedLab
is at hand, it will be in Amsterdam on June 3-7,
2007. This congress is this year’s most important
IFCC event. I hope to see you all there. The scien-
tific program looks very interesting.
There are also important meetings during the
Amsterdam Congress. One of those important mee-
tings is the General Assembly of EFCC (European
Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory
Medicine) which is formed as a the result of the
merger of FESCC and EC4. EFCC will be officially
formed in that General Assembly, the Executive
Board of the new Federation will be elected and
the Statutes of EFCC will be approved. I hope that
all the Scandinavian Societies are present in that
meeting to ensure that there will be Nordic repre-
sentation in the EFCC Executive Board.
IFCC has another important meeting coming
next year. The IFCC General Conference will be
held in Antalya, Turkey on April 13-15, 2008.
Representatives of the National Societies will be
invited to the meeting. The purpose of the General
Conference is to present to all the participants the
IFCC achievements of the past triennium and the
programs for the future. This allows the members
of the various functional units of the IFCC to hear
about all the activities carried out within the IFCC,
and to understand how their efforts fit in with the
other components of the IFCC.
General Conference is also an occasion where
IFCC officials and representatives of the National
Societies will have a chance to meet and exchan-
ge opinions on different issues. Executive Board
is planning a special program for the National
Representatives. The IFCC officials wish that all the
National Representatives will attend the General
Conference.
The hot topic of this spring has been the discus-
sion on the new name and unitage of HbA1c. IFCC
Scientific Division organized a voting on the new
name and unitage of HbA1c, which were approved
by the vast majority of the National Societies. Only
two societies voted against the recommendation.
The new name and unitage of HbA1c have
caused a lot of concern among the clinicians and
the diabetes associations. In the beginning of May
2007, IFCC had a meeting with the representati-
ves of the diabetes associations and a consensus
statement was signed as a result. This consensus
statement will be published in Clinical Chemistry’s
July issue. Basically all parties agreed that HbA1c
should be standardized worldwide, including the
reference method and results reporting, and that
the IFCC reference system is the only valid system
to be used. Parties also agreed that HbA1c assay
results be reported worldwide in IFCC units (mmol/
mol) and derived NGSP units (%), using the IFCC-
NGSP master equation. They also recommend that
all clinical guidelines should be expressed in IFCC
units, derived NGSP units, and average plasma glu-
cose (APG). If the results of the ongoing “average
plasma glucose study” are valid, an HbA1c-derived
average plasma glucose (APG) value should also be
reported as an interpretation of the HbA1c result.  
HbA1c is a very good example of the collabo-
ration between clinical chemists and clinicians;
ultimately this cooperation benefits the patients.
I wish you all a warm and sunny summer!
Klinisk Biokemi i
Nordens rejsestipendium
Klinisk Biokemi i Norden kom ikke ud til
forventet tid i flere lande. Vi udsætter derfor
ansøgningsfristen til
1. september 2007.
Betingelserne for at få rejsestipendiet er
beskrevet i nr. 1/2007 p. 8.
Ansøgningen skal indeholde:
• En kort beskrivelse af formålet med rejsen
og opholdet
• En bekræftelse fra lederen af laborato-
riet i udlandet, at man kan komme som
gæsteforsker
• Et budget for opholdet
Det forventes af modtageren af stipendiet, at
han/hun skriver en artikel til Klinisk Biokemi
i Norden, om hvad der kom ud af rejsen.
Ansøgningen sendes til; Palle Wang, Klinisk
Biokemi, Vejle Sygehus, Kabbeltoft 25,
DK-7100 Vejle. E-post palle.wang@vgs.regi-
onsyddanmark.dk
Foto: Henrik Alfthan
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