The International Society of Oxygen Transport to Tissue (ISOTT) was founded in 1973 to provide a forum for bioengineers, basic scientists, physiologists, and physicians to discuss new data, original theories, new interpretations of old data, and new technologies for the measurement of oxygen. At each annual meeting all posters are presented orally along with plenary lectures, and all presentations are given in a general session attended by everyone. Each meeting has had a specific focus, ranging from neonatology to physical chemistry to cancer biology. The Society has helped to build many careers, through opportunities to meet leaders in the field, and through awards made to young physicians and scientists. The Society also, through cross fertilization of ideas and scientific comradery, has inspired many breakthroughs in clinical medicine that now benefit mankind. I find myself president of the society after having been a winner of the Melvin Knisely Award for young scientists, in 1991. The 2003 meeting emphasized the role of oxygen and oxygen measurement in tumor growth, metastasis, physiology, and treatment resistance. Additionally, however, completely novel approaches to measurement of tissue oxygen were presented (notably work by Dr. Takahashi) and molecular methods for estimating tissue oxygen were evaluated. Papers discussing other aspects of oxygen measurement and pathophysiology were presented including in vivo ESR spectroscopy (notably including Dr. Swartz and colleagues), exercise physiology, organ transplant outcome (discussed by Dr. Cicco, our 2004 president), circulatory physiology, and cerebral oxygenation (notably including Dr. Chance).

This book covers the proceedings of the 32nd scientific meeting of the International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue (ISOTT) in Bari, Italy, August 21-26, 2004. It covers all aspects of oxygen delivery to tissue, including blood flow and its regulation as well as oxygen metabolism. Special emphasis is placed on methods of oxygen measurement in living tissue and application of these technologies to understanding physiological and biochemical basis for pathology related to tissue oxygenation. The event hosted was a multidisciplinary meeting designed to bring together experts and students from a range of research fields.

The International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue (ISOTT, www. isott. info) is an interdisciplinary society comprising about 250 members worldwide. Its purpose is to further the understanding of all aspects of the processes involved in the transport of oxygen from the air to its ultimate consumption in the cells of the various organs of the body. The annual meeting brings together scientists, engineers, clinicians and mathematicians in a unique int- national forum for the exchange of information and knowledge, the updating of participants on latest developments and techniques, and the discussion of controversial issues within the field of oxygen transport to tissue. Founded in 1973, the society has been the leading platform for the presentation of many of the technological and conceptual developments within the field both at the meetings themselves and in the proceedings of the society. These have been published first by Plenum Publishing (1973), then by Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers and presently by Springer Publishing, all in the Advances In Expe- mental Medicine and Biology Series. The 36th Annual ISOTT conference was held in Sapporo, Japan during August 3–7, 2008. It was the second occasion that the ISOTT meeting was held in Japan; the first one was held in the same place in 1987 organized by Professor Masaji Mochizuki.

The International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue (lSOTT) held its 26th annual meeting from August 23-26, 1998, and met for the second time in Budapest. As captured in the design of the ISOTT'98 logo, the venue of the conference was the Budapest Hilton in the heart of the historic Castle District in Buda, across from Hungary's coronation church-the Matthias Church-and the fairy-tale-like Fisherman's Bastion; a special place with a historical touch situated atop the Castle Hill, from where participants enjoyed the spectacular panoramic views of Budapest exquisitely laid out on both sides of the Danube. In preparation for ISOTT'98, major emphasis was given to the application of informatics in collecting, presenting, and disseminating scientific and other information associated with the meeting. Electronic submission of the abstracts made it possible to publish the illustrated Abstracts on the ISOTT'98 Web Site well before the meeting. Following the meeting, an ISOTT'98 CD was published as a digital, searchable record of ISOTT'98. The scientific program was designed with the active participation of prospective attendees, in that priority and momentum was given to the topics selected by those visiting the Web Site. Poster and oral presentations were considered as equivalently effective formats, reflected by the fact that posters were on display throughout the meeting.

This book contains the refereed contributions from the 42nd annual meeting of ISOTT. The annual meetings of ISOTT bring together scientists from various fields (medicine, physiology, mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, etc.) in a unique international forum. ISOTT conferences are a place where an atmosphere of interaction is created, where many questions are asked after each presentation and lively discussions occur at a high scientific level. This vivid interaction is the main motivation for members to participate and gain new ideas and knowledge in the broad field of oxygen transport to tissue. The papers in this volume summarize some of the outstanding contributions from the 42nd annual meeting, which included sessions on: cellular hypoxia and mitochondria; blood substitutes and oxygen therapeutics; oxygen transport in critical care medicine and disease; muscle oxygenation; multi modal imaging techniques; brain oxygenation and imaging; optical techniques for oxygen measurement; microcirculation; mathematical modelling of oxygen transport; and cancer metabolism.

Since its inception in 1973, The International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue (ISOTT) has provided a unique forum to facilitate and encourage scientific interaction and debate. Welcoming scientists and clinicians from a broad spectrum of disciplines, each with their own particular skills and expertise, ISOTT unites them under the common theme of oxygen transport. The successful blend of scientific presentations and informal discussion which characterizes ISOTT is epitomized best by the many fundamental discoveries and technical advancements which it has spawned. The breadth and strengths of The Society's scientific base promotes the rapid progression of ideas from theoretical concepts to rigorous scientific testing and often, ultimately to the clinical arena. Each publication of the ISOTT proceedings has been recognized by Science Citation Index listing and the papers frequently establish scientific precedents and become considered as standard works in their respective fields. The 21st ISOTT Meeting was held in San Diego from August 14th through August 18th, 1993. The San Diego Meeting attracted about 150 registrants and 40 accompanying persons. Ten state-of-the-art lectures were presented by international experts in ~ transport and there were in addition two symposia -one dealing with assessment of tissue hypoxia and the other with functional heterogeneity in different organ systems. There were 100 free communications, consisting of posters accompanied by an abbreviated oral summary. All manuscripts were reviewed by the Editors for form and content, but as is customary for the ISOTT proceedings, rigorous scientific peer review was not undertaken.

The 30th scientific meeting of the International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue (ISOTT) was held at the Western Conference Centre, UMIST, Manchester, in August 2002. It was attended by some 96 delegates and accompanying persons and there were 128 presentations.

This book contains the refereed contributions from the 41st annual meeting of ISOTT. The annual meetings of ISOTT bring together scientists from various fields (medicine, physiology, mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, etc.) in a unique international forum. Traditionally, ISOTT conferences are a place, where an atmosphere of interaction is created, where many questions are asked after each presentation and lively discussions occur at a high scientific level. This vivid interaction is the main motivation for members to participate and gain new ideas and knowledge in the broad field of oxygen transport to tissue. The papers in this volume summarize some of the outstanding contributions from the 41st annual meeting. Special features in this volume include invited presentations from senior members of ISOTT for the theme “the wisdom of ISOTT” in which founders, past presidents and prize winners from previous meetings provided both cutting edge new knowledge and integrated overviews of critical aspects of the field. The presentations and manuscripts also include those provided by the special opportunity provided by having part of the ISOTT meeting overlap with the EPR-2013 meeting where both focused on preclinical and clinical measurements of oxygen, with a particular emphasis on cancer. Chapters 22, 24, 25 and 26 are open access under a CC BY 4.0 license via link.springer.com.

Since there are many different tissues and organs in the body, a study of oxygen transport to tissue necessarily involves a great diversity of bodily functions. Furthermore, these tissue functions can be approached from the viewpoint of several disciplines. Even tually, however, all of these approaches must be combined to arrive at a comprehensive picture. This multidisciplinary effort, though imperative, has been implemented slowly because traditional biologi cal science has been largely organ- or discipline oriented. Initia tives to realize an effective international multidisciplinary collab oration have assumed increasing momentum for the past 20 years. These include meetings held in Bad Oeynhausen in 1965 (book in 1968, edited by D. W. Lubbers, U. C. Luft, G. Thews and E. Witzleb), in Nijmegen in 1968 (book in 1969, edited by F. Kreuzer), in Vancouver in 1970 (J. Strauss), and in Dortmund in 1971; this last was in connection with the 25th International Physiological Congress in Munich (book in 1973, edited by M. Kessler, D. F. Bruley, L. C. Clark, Jr. , D. W. Lubbers, I. A. Silver and J. Strauss). This increasing international cooperation called for a more formal organization of these individual initiatives. The credit for taking this decisive step goes to H. I. Bicher and D. F. Bruley from the U. S. A. and D. W. Lubbers and M. Kessler from Germany, who got together in 1972 to plan a large-scale inter national meeting and to organize an international society.

''In addition to a wide variety of traditional oxygen transport topics, particular areas have been selected for emphasis at the 1997 meeting, which are: Molecular and genetic techniques to study oxygen transport in health and disease Angiogenesis during hypoxia, ischemia, and development Physiological mechanisms of oxygen sensing Physiological fluctuations of cerebral blood flow, metabolism and oxygenation Near infrared and phsophorescence techniques for the assessment of blood and tissue oxygenation Advances in biotechnology of anticoagulants and blood substitutes. '' (excerpted from the Preface).