27/10/2022 - Covid-19
A study by the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute and Pompeu Fabra University has found that not all HIV patients respond adequately to the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. The work has been published in the journal Frontiers in Immunology. Up to 20% of people with HIV being treated with antiretroviral drugs do not regain normal levels of immune cells in their blood. These people, with a depressed immune system, are considered to be at risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and were prioritised in the COVID-19 vaccination strategy, just as other at-risk groups were. However, until now it was not known how they responded to immunisation with RNA-based vaccines, such as those from Pfizer and BioNTech.
12/09/2022 - Press release
Patients admitted due to SARS-CoV-2 infection with imbalanced levels of two immune system cells, CD4 and CD8 T lymphocytes, have a worse prognosis and a higher risk of death. Having more than twice the number of CD4 lymphocytes than CD8 lymphocytes increases the probability of dying from the infection by 4.6 times and the chances of experiencing respiratory distress by two times, according to a study by physicians and researchers from Hospital del Mar, the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and CIBERINFEC, published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine. This finding leads the study's authors to recommend a more aggressive therapeutic approach for these patients from the moment of admission. Additionally, they believe that this situation may be repeated in other viral infections.
28/07/2023 - Press release
A study by cardiologists at Hospital del Mar and researchers at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute reveals that more than half of the people treated for the arrhythmia known as atrial flutter will suffer an episode of atrial fibrillation in less than a year. The risk of atrial fibrillation reaches 86% in those patients who score higher on a risk scale designed by the team, prompting the need for more accurate monitoring of these patients because of the likelihood that they could suffer other cardiovascular problems, such as a stroke. The study, published in the Journal of Cardiology, was funded by the 2014 La Marató de TV3, dedicated to heart disease.
Més informació "Patients with arrhythmia are at greater risk of suffering atrial fibrillation"
04/07/2022 - Covid-19
The possibility of re-freezing vials once they are prepared may enable the manipulation of vaccines in the country of origin, freezing the syringes, and sending them to their destination for immediate use, without the need for a major infrastructure. The shelf life of the re-frozen vaccine is at least one month.
07/07/2022 - Covid-19
A study on the vaccine response of patients with primary antibody deficiency carried out by the Functional Unit of Primary Immunodeficiencies at Hospital del Mar together with the dibi Network (Reference Laboratory of Catalonia) has revealed that a good number of these people have antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 without actually having contracted COVID-19. The study, published in the journal Immunology, is the first to certify the transmission of antinucleocapsid antibodies (ANC) from donors to patients with primary immunodeficiency.
31/05/2022 - Institutional news
The hospital is the only healthcare centre in Spain to form part of the group behind the project, which aims to create a mobile app platform to personalise patient monitoring for sufferers of this disease. The initiative will receive funding from the EU's HORIZON programme. Hospital del Mar's Pneumology Department is part of the TOLIFE project (Artificial Intelligence and Smart sensing TOward better management and improved quality of LIFE in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). This is an international initiative to develop a tool that, using artificial intelligence, will improve and personalise the treatment of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
18/05/2022 - Covid-19
A study by doctors and researchers at Hospital del Mar and the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute confirms that COVID-19 infection is much more virulent than the flu in this group of patients, despite the fact that they are younger and in better health. They also require longer hospital stays and more care. This means that the price of their treatment is double that of patients admitted for influenza, with an extra cost of almost 10,000 euros. The study has been published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases and presented at the European Congress of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases held in Lisbon.
30/03/2022 - General information
A study by the Neuroimmunology Research Group at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) has validated a possible marker that could improve the efficiency of one of the main multiple sclerosis treatments. The marker is a specific type of immune system cell, known as NK (Natural Killer) cells, which express a specific receptor on their surface, NKG2C. Currently, patients with multiple sclerosis are treated with anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies, which are designed to eliminate the B-lymphocyte population in peripheral blood and thus control disease activity. These drugs are scheduled to be administered once every six months, although it is unclear whether this time period is appropriate for all patients. Several studies indicate that, depending on the drug given, it takes between six months and a year and a half for the levels of the B-lymphocyte population to recover.
22/03/2022 - Press release
In contrast, exposure to environmental pollutants such as fine particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and soot significantly increases the risk of suffering an ischaemic stroke. The article in the journal Environment International, one of the most important studies published to date in Europe, analysed data from the entire population in Catalonia, geo-referencing more than three and a half million people. The authors consider that these results mean that the maximum levels of atmospheric pollutants established by the EU need to be reconsidered. The risk of suffering an ischaemic stroke, the most common type of cerebrovascular event, is 16% less in people who have green spaces less than 300 metres from their homes. This has been revealed in a joint study by the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, Hospital del Mar, the Catalan Health Quality and Assessment Agency (AQuAS) from the Catalan Government's Department of Health and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre promoted by the "la Caixa" Foundation. It is the most important work in this field to date in Europe, analysing data on the entire population of Catalonia between 2016 and 2017.
Més informació "Living near green areas reduces the risk of suffering a stroke by 16%"
11/02/2022 - General information
The head of the Infectious Diseases Department at Hospital del Mar and coordinator of the Infectious Pathology and Antimicrobial Research Group at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, was appointed to this body, which is part of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), last month. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has selected Dr. Juan Pablo Horcajada, head of the Infectious Diseases Department at Hospital del Mar and coordinator of the Infectious Pathology and Antimicrobial Research Group at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) as a member of its Scientific Advisory Group on Infectious Diseases. This is a body comprising experts in this field from several European countries, chosen by the agency after a selection process, following a proposal from the national medicines agencies.
© Institut Hospital del Mar
d'Investigacions MèdiquesLegal Notice and Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | Site Index | Accessibility | Find Us | Contact