Three research communications on respiratory and precision medicine from IRBLleida, selected by the main international congress of thoracic medicine.

Paola Carmona, a nurse from the Pneumology Department of the Hospital Universitario Santa Maria, will present the communication entitled ‘Pulmonary Function and Radiological Features in Survivors of Critical COVID-19: a 3 month prospective cohort’, which assesses the pulmonary sequelae three months after discharge in patients who have been admitted to the ICU for COVID-19. "This study is important because until now there was no scientific evidence on this issue and we have seen that the sequelae have a very high prevalence, affecting 82% of patients," explains Carmona. "We are currently following up to see if they persist 6 and 12 months after discharge," he adds.

Lucía Pinilla, a doctoral student at the University of Lleida (UdL), will present the paper ‘Circulating micro RNAs as Biomarkers of COVID-19 Severity’, which analyses the medium-term repercussions that COVID-19 causes in patients who have been admitted to intensive care units.

Finally, the third communication from Lleida, entitled ‘Respiratory Polygraphy Patterns and Risk of Cardiovascular Events in Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome’, will be presented by Andrea Zapater, also a doctoral student at the UdL, and is focused on identifying new prognostic markers of cardiovascular complications in patients with sleep apnoea.

All three are researchers at IRBLleida. Paola Carmona, from the Translational Research in Respiratory Medicine research group at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine of Lleida (IRBLleida) and Lucía Pinilla and Andrea Zapater, from the Precision Medicine in Chronic Diseases group.

High level of research in Lleida

Every year, the Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR) selects the four best papers to be presented from Spain at the international congress of the American Thoracic Society, which this year will be held from 14 to 19 May in telematic format. Of the four, three are from the respiratory medicine research group at IRBLleida, led by Dr. Ferran Barbé, regional clinical director of Chronic Respiratory Diseases at ICS Lleida, Alt Pirineu and Aran and Health Services Management. "The fact that they represent 75% of the communications chosen by SEPAR shows the high level of research carried out in Lleida and highlights the quality of nursing research in hospitals and the results for patients and citizens," says Barbé.

Information: Gabinet de Comunicació i Imatge. Gerència Territorial ICS Lleida, Alt Pirineu i Aran i Gestió de Serveis Sanitaris / IRBLleida