• Find people
• Intranet

Critical Illness Joan Ramon Masclans

Introduction

The Critical Illness Research Group (GREPAC) aims at contributing to elucidate the mechanism involved in the onset and progression of different illnesses that cause a reversible dysfunction to one or more organs placing the patient’s life at risk. To do this, our research includes clinical research on patients, and also experimental models. These models allow us to study the molecular mechanisms involved in these processes and to identify therapeutic targets and new strategies against these illnesses and, whenever possible, to anticipate ourselves to these cascades to avoid more illnesses and multi-organ dysfunction.

The critical illness research group conceived Intensive Medicine research from a translational, clinical and multi-disciplinary approach; hence, another important objective is to further study new strategies and treatments by conducting controlled clinical trials and observational projects with a high interest, participating at all possible levels of commitment: as promoters, lead researchers, collaborators in multi-centre projects and developing our own projects.

Main research lines

1. Inflammatory Lung disease. Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS)

• ARDS epidemiology
• The role of different biomarkers in ARDS
• High-flow oxygen therapy

2. Studies on biomarkers in other critical patients:

• Pro-adrenomedullin in neurocritical patients
• Copeptin in encephalic death
• Biomarkers in heat stroke

3. Control and prevention of nosocomial infection in critical patients:

• Zero resistance
• Zero pneumonia
• Zero bacteraemia
• ENVIN

4. Optimization of antibiotic treatment:

• PROA
• PK/PD studies

5. Hemodynamic monitoring:

• Smart alarms to anticipate relevant events (shock, VILI)

6. Micro-circulatory alterations in sepsis:

• Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), Polarized light microscopy

7. Phase II and III clinical trials

Group objectives

•  Contributing to understanding the mechanisms involved in the appearance and progression of different diseases that cause the reversible dysfunction of one or more organs (multiple organ dysfunction) that place patients’ lives at risk via clinical research with critically-ill patients and basic research on experimental animal models.
• These studies are within the setting of multiple and single university projects, also performing controlled clinical trials that deepen knowledge of new strategies and treatments for critically-ill patients.