11/07/2017 - Press release
Researchers at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) have shown for the first time that immunoglobulin M, secreted by the human intestine, plays a key role in maintaining the diversity of intestinal flora by including and maintaining microorganisms that are beneficial to our health. These results have been published in the prestigious scientific journal Immunity. "We have discovered that, in addition to immunoglobulin A, (IgA), immunoglobulin M (IgM), secreted by the human intestine, interacts with the intestinal microbiota and actively participates in maintaining its diversity. In addition, we have demonstrated that this immunoglobulin is part of an immunological memory system through which our organism is able to recognise and adapt to its microbial environment", explain Giuliana Magri and Laura Comerma, researchers from the B Cell Biology research group at the IMIM and first authors of the article.
Més informació "Key immunological mechanism for regulating intestinal flora discovered"
28/07/2016 - Press release
Cardiologists at the Hospital del Mar and researchers from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) have developed a new tool that enables them to estimate atrial fibrillation risk using electrocardiogram indicators, basic clinical data, and parameters obtained through Holter monitors (small electronic devices that record and store a patient's electrocardiogram for 24 hours). The results of the project have just been published in the International Journal of Cardiology. Atrial fibrillation is a disease characterised by uncoordinated and disorganised atrial beats that produce a rapid and irregular heart rate. It is estimated that it affects between 1.5 and 2% of people in the developed world and the percentage increases with age.
20/07/2016 - Press release
Lung cancer is the most deadly cancer in the world, causing more than one and a half million deaths a year. The most common subtype of lung cancer is adenocarcinoma. The presence of other underlying conditions, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which is also responsible for a high mortality rate in industrialised regions, increases the risk of developing it. Despite recent progress in therapeutic strategies for combatting this disease, the majority of patients who are diagnosed do not survive for more than five years. It is a cancer that can develop silently for many months and, in some cases, the symptoms can be confused with other diseases, such as the already-mentioned COPD. This is why it is usually diagnosed in very advanced stages. To all these impediments, it is necessary to add the difficulty of finding an appropriate treatment for each patient, since there is a high level of resistance to currently-used drugs.
Més informació "A combination of therapies improves lung cancer treatment"
16/06/2016 - Press release
An international study led by the Neurology Service at Hospital del Mar and the Neurovascular research group at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) has quantified the risk and developed predictors for ischemic stroke in patients with carotid artery stenosis. The results of the study, published in the journal Neurology, have confirmed that there is a high risk of recurrence in the first 14 days after the stroke, which is the recommended time for carotid revascularisation surgery. But since very urgent surgery entails a considerable surgical risk, it is necessary to determine the most appropriate time for undertaking this operation in the fourteen days following the stroke. The study provides a starting point and randomised trials are recommended to determine the benefits and safety of emergency revascularisation as opposed to subacute carotid revascularisation within 14 days after the onset of symptoms.
Més informació "When is the best time to have carotid stenosis surgery after a stroke?"
31/03/2016 - Press release
The Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute and the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute, in collaboration with the MútuaTerrassa Foundation, were the only Spanish research centres to participate in the largest study to date into genome association with ischaemic stroke, and which involved around 38,000 patients and 400,000 control subjects. The study, published recently in Lancet Neurology by two international consortia, has led to the identification of a gene implicated in atherothrombotic ischaemic stroke. The team of Dr. Jordi Jiménez-Conde, head of the Genetics Area within the Neurovascular Research Group at the IMIM and a neurologist at the Hospital del Mar, took part in the discovery phase of the study. This first part involved the analysis of nearly 900 samples from stroke patients and 1200 controls from the Hospital del Mar, this being the second-ranked centre internationally according number of cases.
08/02/2016 - Press release
Researchers from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) have found an epigenetic mechanism implicated in the regulation of blood sugar. The study, published in the journal Molecular Human Genetics, reveals that the methylation of the TXNIP gene is associated with diabetes mellitus type 2 and, in particular, average blood glucose levels. These results, replicated in two patient cohorts, could help to both identify patients at risk of developing diabetes and control treatment response, as well as generating possible future therapies for this disease, one of the major cardiovascular risk factors in the population. The work was coordinated by Carolina Soriano, from the Neurovascular research group at the IMIM, and Jordi Jiménez Conde, from the same group and a neurologist at the Hospital del Mar, in collaboration with the IMIM's Cardiovascular Epidemiology and Genetics group.
22/12/2015 - Press release
A study by the Cardiology Service's Heart Failure Unit at the Hospital del Mar and IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute) has demonstrated that patients with chronic heart failure (HF) who are telephonically monitored have better results with regard to relapse and rehospitalisation than patients that receive conventional on-site follow-up. For six months the researchers used an electronic platform to analyse the evolution of a group of telephonically monitored patients, who used videoconferencing to communicate with the healthcare team. According to the study published in the Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, the group being monitored using telemedicine also involved a 3,546 euro reduction in average cost per patient compared to the control group, over the six months of follow-up.
21/09/2015 - Press release
An uncommon variant of the gene EN1 contributes to bone mineral density and osteoporotic fractures, according to a study recently published in the journal Nature. Daniel Grinberg, expert in the Department of Genetics of the University of Barcelona (UB) and member of the Institute of Biomedicine of the UB (IBUB), has participated in the study. Xavier Nogués and Natàlia Garcia Giralt, experts at the Service of Internal Medicine of the Hospital del Mar and the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) also participate in the study, which is led by Brent Richards, professor at McGill University (Montreal, Canada). The study is also part of a research line on bone pathologies developed by the Centre for Biomedical Network Research on Rare Diseases (CIBERER), led by professors Daniel Grinberg and Susana Balcells (Department of Genetics of the UB and IBUB) with the collaboration of experts on internal medicine from the Hospital del Mar and the IMIM.
9/10/2012 - Press release
Patients with breast cancer that undergo a selective sentinel lymph node biopsy have a better quality of life 12 months after surgery than those submitted to lymph node dissection. "Until now, there was a slight controversy as to the benefits in terms of the quality of life of patients undergoing a sentinel lymph node biopsy compared to a lymph node dissection.” says Roser Belmonte, a doctor at the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Hospital del Mar-Esperança and a researcher at IMIM.
24/05/2012 - Press release
Researchers at the IMIM (Hospital del Mar Research Institute) and the Hospital del Mar have studied the role of NK cells in the development and progression of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) when a viral infection is present. The results from the study show that these cells play a decisive role in the natural progression of the disease.
Més informació "New Indicators to Reveal the Progression of COPD"
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