Highlights of the 8th Asia Oceania Congress of Nuclear Medicine and Biology, Beijing, China, 2004

The 8th Congress of the Asia and Oceania Confederation of Nuclear Medicine and Biology opened at the old cultural city, Beijing on 9th October 2005. The main theme of the 8th Congress was 'Progress with time - to create a brilliant future'. The congress addressed most of the current trends, developments and achievements in the field of nuclear medicine in an extremely friendly and peaceful environment. Besides the main congress, a Pre-congress colloquium in Beijing by the World Radiopharmaceutical Therapy Council (on 9 October), and two post-congress Satellite meetings at Shanghai and Hong Kong on 15 and 17 October respectively were organized in conjunction with the 8th congress. One of the major achievements of the congress was a record number of 58 invited lectures delivered by a galaxy of internationally reputed professionals in nuclear medicine and allied sciences. Four hundred and fifty-six (456) participants, 230 of them from China and 226 from another 33 countries of Asia and from around the rest of the world; 23 exhibitors representing manufacturers and producers of nuclear medicine equipment, radiopharmaceuticals and consumables, participated in the congress. A total of 384 abstracts were received for presentation from 36 countries, 141 for oral and 243 for poster presentation. Majority of the abstracts came from Asia; significant numbers came from Australia, Europe and North America. The distribution of abstracts in terms of the topics is given. The most popular subject was nuclear oncology, followed by general nuclear medicine, nuclear cardiology, radionuclide therapy, nuclear neurology and radiopharmacy. As compared to the presentations at the 7th AOCNMB; it was observed that there has been increases in presentations on topic related to nuclear oncology, radionuclide therapy, basic nuclear medicine, radiopharmacy and instrumentation at the 8th Congress; whereas significant reduction was observed in the number of presentations related to general nuclear medicine, nuclear cardiology and nuclear neurology