Preface

Accessible online at: www.karger.com/bpu We are delighted that the proceedings of the fifth annual International Conference on Dialysis are being consecutively published in Blood Purification. The 2003 special edition of the Advances in ESRD series continues to remain faithful to its predecessors by covering not only current technological and therapeutic topics in the field of ESRD, but also clinical issues facing nephrologists and caregivers in the spectrum of chronic kidney disease. As in past years, the speakers of the International Conference on Dialysis V have submitted their manuscripts for this publication in a timely manner in order to provide a comprehensive overview of the congress to all attendees during the meeting, as well as to those who could not attend. Thanks to this noteworthy effort that seems to become more challenging every year, attendees and participants will be able to follow and reference the conference proceedings which reproduce the sequence of the presentations in the 3-day program. It is our hope that this upto-date publication will act as a useful reference and educational tool to both young and experienced physicians by documenting current topics and the progress professionals and providers of ESRD have accomplished in the past 4 years. We are indebted to all those who made the conference possible, including the staff of the Renal Research Institute and the University of Minnesota. We are equally grateful to the exhibitors and sponsors for their continued contribution and support to this unique educational program, as well as the important endorsements of the program given by the ANNA, ASN, ISN, NKF, and RPA. We welcome the ISN as the newest professional organization endorsing our work. We would like to extend our sincere appreciation to all the members of the program for designing an up-to-date and interesting program. Additional thanks go to Gerald Beathard, MD, Rinaldo Bellomo, MD, John Burkhart, MD, Prabir Roy Chaudhury, MD, PhD, Glenn Chertow, MD, Allan J. Collins, MD, John Daugirdas, MD, Peter De Oreo, MD, Jose Diaz-Buxo, MD, Linda Fishman, Richard Goldman, MD, Thomas Golper, MD, William G. Goodman, MD, Frank A. Gotch, MD, Tom Greene, PhD, Roger Greenwood, MD, Garry Handelman, MD, Harold H. Handley, PhD, Charles Herzog, MD, David Humes, MD, John D. Imig, PhD, Bertram Kasiske, MD, George A. Kaysen, MD, PhD, Alan Kliger, MD, Ravindra L. Mehta, MD, Norbert Lameire, MD, J. Michael Lazarus, MD, Robert Levin, Hartmuth Malluche, MD, Stephen McMurray, MD, David Mendelssohn, MD, Norma Ofsthun, PhD, Larry Park, MSPH, Brian Pereira, MD, Fritz Port, MD, Sarah Prichard, MD, Robert Provenzano, MD, Claudio Ronco, MD, Jeffrey Sands, MD, Jeffrey Siegel, MD, Don S. Silverberg, MD, Tim Trysla, Richard Tullis, PhD, Ed Vonesh, PhD, James Winchester, MD, Robert Wolfe, PhD, Harvey Yampolsky, Esq, Eric Young, MD, Fanzan Zhu, MD, and Carmine Zoccali, MD. Finally, thanks to Karger Publishers for their outstanding quality and commitment to producing this timely publication in such prompt fashion.