Present issue of „Postępy Nauk Medycznych” is published in conjunction with the 40 years anniversary of establishment by Professor Marian Klamut of an Interventional Radiology Department at the University Medical School in Lublin, as an independent unit, the first in Poland and the first in Europe. The Department invented and implemented numerous new methods of endovascular and percutaneous treatment and for many luminous and motivated doctors have been a source of inspiration and a site for highest-level education. The Department has become an interventional radiology referral center and an active research unit.

All papers included in this issue are related to the interventional radiology, which is a unique branch of radiology employing minimally invasive methods to treat a wide range of diseases, among which are vascular, neoplastic and post traumatic diseases that are considered to be the three main causes of death.