26/02/2021 - Press release
HDL cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein cholesterol) or good cholesterol is associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease as it transports cholesterol deposited in the arteries to the liver to be eliminated. This contrasts with the so-called bad cholesterol, LDL (low-density lipoprotein cholesterol), which causes cholesterol to accumulate in the arteries and increases cardiovascular risk. Although drugs that lower bad cholesterol reduce cardiovascular risk, those that raise good cholesterol have not proven effective in reducing the risk of heart disease. This paradox has called into question the relationship between good cholesterol and cardiovascular risk, and researchers are now studying the characteristics of these HDL or good cholesterol particles.
29/12/2020 - Press release
A study that has just been published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology shows that high levels of triglycerides (the most common type of fat in the body), as well as those of remnant cholesterol (in triglyceride-rich lipoproteins), increase the risk of suffering cardiovascular disease in high-risk patients, even if they take the usual treatment to control blood cholesterol levels. The work is authored by researchers from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM-Hospital del Mar), Hospital Clínic de Barcelona-IDIBAPS, and the CIBER on the Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBERObn).
16/12/2020 - Press release
T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL) is a cancer of the blood that affects mainly children, but also less frequently adults. In adults, although the response to treatment might be initially positive, relapses are common and have a poor prognosis. A collaborative project between IRB Barcelona's Biomedical Genomics lab, headed by ICREA researcher Núria López-Bigas, Anna Bigas' group at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM-Hospital del Mar), and Josep Maria Ribera's lab at the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC) has discovered that the cells responsible for resistance to T-ALL treatment in adults are already present in the tumours before diagnosis.
15/12/2020 - Press release
DNA damage levels and the activity of the polymerase enzyme responsible for cell repair (PARP) increase in lung tumours in patients suffering chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but not in people who do not have this pathology. This is reflected in work by researchers from the CIBER of Respiratory Diseases (CIBERES) and doctors and researchers from the Hospital del Mar Pneumology Service and the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute research group on muscle wasting and cachexia in chronic respiratory diseases and lung cancer (IMIM-Hospital del Mar), published in the journal Cancers This research is of enormous importance given that treating lung cancer with PARP enzyme inhibitors (already in clinical use for other tumours, such as breast and ovarian cancers) is preferentially indicated for patients with an underlying respiratory disease, while the response in people with no COPD is highly controversial.
Més informació "The presence of COPD, a determining factor in lung cancer treatment"
18/12/2020 - Press release
The journal Neurology has just published the most complete and exhaustive study to date on the survival rate and sequelae of patients who suffer a ruptured brain aneurysm, a disease known as subarachnoid haemorrhage. The work was carried out by doctors at Hospital del Mar (from the Neurology, Neurosurgery, Intensive Medicine, Interventional Neuroradiology, Radiology and Anaesthesia and Resuscitation services) and researchers from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM). The results show that the strategy implemented in Catalonia to cover emergency care for this condition produces results comparable to those of the most advanced centres in the world. The data analysed corresponds to 311 patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage treated at Hospital del Mar over the last 12 years. The short-term mortality rate is between 8.7% (one week after treatment, during the hospitalisation period), and 18.4% (after three months). One year after the vascular event, this figure reaches 22.9% and, five years later, 29%. Only 7% of the patients who survived after five years presented disabling sequelae. According to several studies, deaths from this pathology around the world are between 11% and 27.5% in hospital and over 30% after three months.
Més informació "Only 7% of patients treated for a brain aneurysm suffer long-term sequelae"
2/12/2020 - Press release
The article published in the journal World Psychiatry and endorsed by the informal scientific network of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), and including the United States National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), validates and corroborates the approach to the dual diagnosis implemented at Hospital del Mar for patients being treated for addiction to a substance of abuse who, in addition, suffer another psychiatric pathology. Dual diagnosis is a major health problem that causes, according to the article, an increased number of emergencies in healthcare centres, as well as more psychiatric hospitalisations, a higher risk of relapse into drug use and premature death, including suicide. This has individual and social repercussions, as well as consequences for healthcare systems, and means that a multidisciplinary and comprehensive approach is required. Nevertheless, as the authors of the paper point out, there is a generalised lack of preparedness to deal with this situation.
01/12/2020 - Press release
The public-private consortium formed by the biotech company Connecta Therapeutics, the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) has received a grant for 1,970,520 Euro from the Spanish National Innovation Agency to develop an innovative treatment for fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most common form of hereditary intellectual disability. The grant comes from the 2019 "Collaboration Challenges" call for projects of the National R&D&I Programme geared towards societal challenges. The call received 420 applications, 158 of which will be funded.
17/11/2020 - Press release
Nutritional parameters such as body mass index and tests including albumin and total protein levels quantified prior to lung cancer surgery in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) predict their 10 year survival, regardless of tumour-related factors and/or chest surgery. This is reflected in the work of researchers from the CIBER of Respiratory Diseases (CIBERES) and doctors and researchers from the Hospital del Mar Pneumology Service and the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute research group on muscle wasting and cachexia in chronic respiratory diseases and lung cancer (IMIM-Hospital del Mar), published in the journal of the Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR) Archivos de Bronconeumología. The researchers studied the nutritional status of lung cancer and COPD patients who required surgery and the relationship of this with post-operative survival. To do this, they analysed the nutritional status of 125 patients from Hospital del Mar, 87 of whom had COPD and lung cancer and 38 of whom had cancer but no COPD, before they underwent chest surgery. The patients were monitored for 10 years in order to study their differential survival rates according to the presence or absence of COPD.
29/10/2020 - Press release
The Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), together with the INCLIVA Health Research Institute, from Hospital Clínic in Valencia, and the Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology, have obtained funding from the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) for their project entitled Factors derived from the tumoral microenvironment in localised colon cancer: clinical impact and therapeutic implications. Dr. Clara Montagut, head of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Unit in the Medical Oncology Service at Hospital del Mar, coordinator of the Clinical and Translational Research Group on new therapies and biomarkers in colon and rectal cancer at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) and a participant in the study, points out that "The goal of this research is to identify markers that will help us determine whether the cancer will re-emerge in a patient who has undergone colon cancer surgery. This is extremely important for people who have colon cancer, since at present we are unable to predict whether the tumour will reappear or not after surgery.
27/10/2020 - Press release
A team of researchers from the Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital and Research Institute (IGTP) and the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) has shown that regularly consuming foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, from both animal and vegetable origins, strengthens the heart's membranes and helps improve the prognosis in the event of a myocardial infarction. To arrive at these conclusions, they used data from 950 patients. The omega-3 levels in the blood of these individuals were determined when they were admitted to hospital to be treated for the heart attack. This measurement indicates, very accurately, how much of these fats the patients had eaten in the weeks prior to the sampling, in other words, before the heart attack. The patients were monitored for three years after being discharged, and the researchers observed that having high levels of omega-3 in the blood at the time of the infarction, which had been consumed in the weeks leading up to the heart attack, was associated with a lower risk of complications. The results of the study have just been published in the prestigious Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
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