The mid -term INASL (Indian Association for the study of the Liver) meeting on “Metabolic Liver Disease” was co-organised by the IAP, Mumbai and Children’s Liver Foundation.  It was held on two pleasant days of 13th and 14th of January, 2012 at the Textile committee auditorium, Prabhadevi in Central Mumbai. It was a rare occasion when Pediatricians, Gastroenterologists, Pathologists and Geneticists came together under one roof to discuss a complex group of disorders which seldom gets discussed in the regular Gastroenterology or Pediatric meetings. In fact, the secretary of INASL, Dr SP Singh – in his inaugural speech mentioned that in most liver meetings little beyond Hepatitis B and C got discussed and that this was a step forward in creating awareness about these disorders. More than 200 delegates attended the meeting and these included delegates from outside Mumbai. There were about 10 case presentations by post graduates conducted by a panel of local and National experts in the field. These covered a wide spectrum of metabolic liver diseases, which were followed by didactic lectures on related topics.
 

The meeting got an international flavor from Dr Priya Kishnani from Duke University medical center, USA and Dr Pramod Mistry, University of Yale, USA. There were discussions on how diseases like NAFLD (non alcoholic fatty liver disease) and hemochromatosis were different in the Indian subcontinent and those seen in the West. Simple dietary interventions to manage hypoglycemia in children with glycogen storage disease to the complex pathophysiologic mechanisms of the disease were discussed. The developments in the diagnostics and therapeutics of various metabolic liver disorders was an eye opener and the possibility of collaboration between various centres within the country and with centres abroad was welcomed.

The last hour of the meeting was devoted to a free interaction between the experts and the delegates, where most queries got answered and the meeting ended on a positive note of the need to have such meetings every year.