Tokyo Physiology 2024 by FRIENDS Live, of which I am the chair, will be held at Tokyo Conference Center Shinagawa on March 2 (Saturday) and 3 (Sunday), 2024.
This is the eighth year of FRIENDS Live, the world’s largest live physiology event. In the past three years, like other academic conferences and workshops we were affected by COVID-19. FRIENDS Live 2020 was scheduled to be held in March 2020, but it was postponed to August and held completely online. In 2021 and 2022, FRIENDS Live took place despite COVID-19. Now that COVID-19 is classified as a Class 5 disease, and although we still need to be as careful as before, we are able to hold FRIENDS Live face-to-face like it used to be and invite prominent doctors from abroad to give lectures at our event. Holding a conference online has the advantage of making it easier for doctors in distant locations to participate, but it also has the disadvantage of making discussions and sufficient examinations in a large group difficult. I believe that holding a face-to-face conference is more effective, especially in the ever-improving medical world.
Tremendous progress has been made in the field of physiology. For example, guidelines recommend with high evidence levels that PCI should be used according to the functional assessment of ischemia, and assessment of ischemia with a pressure wire has now become a routine approach. FFR-CT and FFR-Angio are now common procedures for assessing FFR noninvasively. Many of us continue to use imaging devices during PCI, and Syntax II highlighted the usefulness of imaging device- and physiology-guided PCI.
One of the themes of Tokyo Physiology 2024 by FRIENDS Live is the integration of physiology and imaging devices, and this topic will be a focal point of lectures and live events.
This year, Tokyo Physiology 2024 by FRIENDS Live will completely return to its pre-COVID-19 format. However, its content will be even better than that of the previous FRIENDS Live events, so I encourage you to attend.
I look forward to seeing you there.
Masashi Iwabuchi, Chair (University of the Ryukyus Hospital)
Greetings! My name is Shoichi Kuramitsu. I work at Sapporo Cardio Vascular Clinic and have been appointed as Vice-Chair of Tokyo Physiology 2024. This year marks the eighth year since Tokyo Physiology started in 2016. Coronary physiology is constantly advancing, and just in these past eight years, many new concepts have been introduced, such as FFR, NHPRs, FFR-CT, Angio-based FFR, and CMD. As Vice-Chair, I would like to help ensure that we keep up with this trend and that Tokyo Physiology develops into a conference that creates new trends.
In coronary physiology, a comprehensive approach has lately been advocated, including assessing epicardial coronary arteries and coronary microcirculation, and the treatment of CCS cases is now entering a new phase. Since publication of the ISCHEMIA and REVIVIED studies, some have questioned the indications for PCI in CCS cases and even the very existence of PCI. However, we must remember that there is always quite a large gap between randomized studies and clinical practice.
What can we do now? I believe that the answer is nothing other than allowing PCI to maximize its potential, that is, we must pursue state-of-the-art PCI. What is state-of-the-art PCI? One answer is the SYNTAX II Approach, in which OMT and coronary physiology- and imaging-guided PCI are performed. Coronary physiology and coronary imaging complement each other, and being able to use both in daily clinical practice is an advantage in Japan.
The conference theme of Tokyo Physiology 2024 is “Marriage between Physiology and Imaging.” To harmonize physiology and imaging and bring routine coronary artery treatment to a higher level, we are planning to hold many educational programs over the two days. Whether you currently perform or will be performing coronary artery treatment, I look forward to meeting you at the venue in Shinagawa in March 2024.
Shoichi Kuramitsu, Vice-Chair（Sapporo Cardio Vasucular Clinic）
