The rheumatological meetings of the Northwestern Poland are organized annually by the teams of Vladimir Samborski of Poznań and Mark Brzosko of Stettin. The Third Meeting took place in "Arka" hotel in Kołobrzeg on May 10-12, 2007.

The program of the conference consisted of lectures and workshops on interesting clinical cases. In this way, the main feature of the meeting was education of physicians in rheumatology seen from the internist view. Several problems discussed included extraarticular complications, rheumatological manifestations of disorders of internal organs, side-effects of medications.

In the first day of the conference, the following lectures were delivered: "Management of the patient with spondyloarthropathy: internist's view" (Eugene J. Kucharz), "Selection of patients with aggressive course of rheumatoid arthritis" (Mark Brzosko), "Effectiveness of lefludomide in monotherapy or combined therapy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis" (Vladimir Samborski), "Practical aspects of treatment with lefludomide" (Marion Puszczewicz), "Cyclosporin A in management of rheumatic disorders" (Ann Kuliszyn-Moskal).

Workshops of the first day of the meeting were focused on interesting clinical cases, including aseptic osteonecrosis in systemic lupus erythematosus (Agnes Ogrodnowicz), renal acidosis in systemic sclerosis (Ann Mańczeska), cardiac involvement in patient with Wegener granulomatosis (Eve Stachura), calciphylaxis in systemic lupus erythematosus (Ivone Brzosko), coexistence of arthritis with hepatitis type C (Magdalen Atarowska), coexistence of polymyositis and thymoma (Beate Butkiewicz), association of perivasculitis nodosa and Sjögren syndrome (Christophoros Prajs).

The following lectures were presented in the second day of the conference: "Management less harmful than the disease" (Casimir Ciechanowski), "Cardiac involvement in patients with systemic lupus" (Lydia Ostanek), "Depresion in patients with rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis" (Agatha Wytyk-Nowak, Vladimir Samborski). Case presentations included discussion on paraneoplastic syndromes in systemic lupus erythematosus (Olga Zabłotna), fungal spondyloarthritis (Margaret Łukianowicz), antibodies against cytrulinated peptides in psoriatic arthritis (Alexandra Tuchocka), Wegener granulomatosis (Ivone Brzosko, Ivone Klimecka, Dominic Majewski), Behçct’s disease (Agnes Zimoń), aortitis (Mathew Milchert).

The conference was found to be interesting by the participants, and was attended by more than 200 physicians. The meeting was organized successfully by the committee chaired by Mark Brzosko and Vladimir Samborski.

Kołobrzeg, May 10, 2007. Group of lectures of the Third Rheumatological Meeting of the Poznań and Stettin Regions. From left: Marion Puszczewicz, Vladimir Samborski, Mark Brzosko, Eve Muszyńska, Ann Kuliszyn-Moskal, Eugene J. Kucharz