Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón

About: Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón is a healthcare organization based out in Madrid, Spain. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Transplantation. The organization has 11975 authors who have published 12386 publications receiving 244847 citations.

In Vitro Activities of Linezolid against Clinical Isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis That Are Susceptible or Resistant to First-Line Antituberculous Drugs

Abstract: We evaluated 117 isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis for susceptibility to linezolid by the proportion and E-test methods. Linezolid showed high in vitro activity, with all the strains inhibited by ≤1 μg of the drug per ml. E-test MICs were at least 4 dilutions lower than their equivalents by the standard proportion method.

A neurophysiological approach to brainstem reflexes. Blink reflex

Abstract: The blink reflex (BR) is a generalised phenomenon in mammals. Its teleological protective eye function is perhaps the reason why the BR can be provoked by a multitude of stimuli. As corneal and glabellar reflexes, BR has an inveterate use in the neurological exploration. Some of its physiopathological aspects were discussed more than 100 years ago, and soon half a century will have passed since the first electrophysiological study was published. This review focuses on the BR elicited by the electrical stimulation of the trigeminal supraorbital nerve, a controlled and reliable model in clinical neurophysiology. The electrically elicited BR is an exteroceptive-nociceptive reflex recorded on the orbicularis oculi muscle and formed by three components: the two principal ones, R1 and R2, of well-known characteristics, and a third, R3, of increasing interest, to which there is wide mention. The trigeminal afferent limb reaches the facial efferent one by means of a long and quite complex central pathway located at the brainstem bulbopontine level. The anatomical substrate and criteria of the rich topographical lesional semiology of the BR are established. The importance of the suprasegmental influences upon the reflex, coming mainly from the cerebral cortex and basal ganglia, as well as the impairment caused by their damage, will be emphasised. Special attention is paid to the relationship between the reflex and the dopaminergic system, and the consequences of its derangement. The methods of habituation and suppression-recovery of the BR are extensively and critically reviewed. These methods measure its excitability and serve in practice for the pathophysiological study of numerous diseases. The relationship of the BR with the spontaneous blinking is considered, and the existence of a primary inhibitory reflex on levator palpebrae muscles, previous to the active reflex response of the orbicularis, is proposed. The electrophysiological characteristics of the glabellar reflex, the corneal reflex, the acoustic, photic and somatosensory provoked BR, the ontogeny, and some of the common factors influencing the reflex, such as sleep, are also discussed. The strategic position of the neural structures of the BR, in an area involved in the gating of the various sensory-motor systems and the relative ease to its evaluation with common methodology used in clinical neurophysiology, makes the BR an essential tool for the diagnosis and pathophysiological insight into an important number of human neurological disorders.

A multicenter multinational study of abdominal candidiasis: epidemiology, outcomes and predictors of mortality

Abstract: Clinical data on patients with intra-abdominal candidiasis (IAC) is still scarce. We collected data from 13 hospitals in Italy, Spain, Brazil, and Greece over a 3-year period (2011–2013) including patients from ICU, medical, and surgical wards. A total of 481 patients were included in the study. Of these, 27 % were hospitalized in ICU. Mean age was 63 years and 57 % of patients were male. IAC mainly consisted of secondary peritonitis (41 %) and abdominal abscesses (30 %); 68 (14 %) cases were also candidemic and 331 (69 %) had concomitant bacterial infections. The most commonly isolated Candida species were C. albicans (n = 308 isolates, 64 %) and C. glabrata (n = 76, 16 %). Antifungal treatment included echinocandins (64 %), azoles (32 %), and amphotericin B (4 %). Septic shock was documented in 40.5 % of patients. Overall 30-day hospital mortality was 27 % with 38.9 % mortality in ICU. Multivariate logistic regression showed that age (OR 1.05, 95 % CI 1.03–1.07, P < 0.001), increments in 1-point APACHE II scores (OR 1.05, 95 % CI 1.01–1.08, P = 0.028), secondary peritonitis (OR 1.72, 95 % CI 1.02–2.89, P = 0.019), septic shock (OR 3.29, 95 % CI 1.88–5.86, P < 0.001), and absence of adequate abdominal source control (OR 3.35, 95 % CI 2.01–5.63, P < 0.001) were associated with mortality. In patients with septic shock, absence of source control correlated with mortality rates above 60 % irrespective of administration of an adequate antifungal therapy. Low percentages of concomitant candidemia and high mortality rates are documented in IAC. In patients presenting with septic shock, source control is fundamental.

Molecular Characterization of Spontaneous Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transformation

Abstract: Background We previously reported the in vitro spontaneous transformation of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) generating a population with tumorigenic potential, that we termed transformed mesenchymal cells (TMC) Methodology/Principal Findings Here we have characterized the molecular changes associated with TMC generation Using microarrays techniques we identified a set of altered pathways and a greater number of downregulated than upregulated genes during MSC transformation, in part due to the expression of many untranslated RNAs in MSC Microarray results were validated by qRT-PCR and protein detection Conclusions/Significance In our model, the transformation process takes place through two sequential steps; first MSC bypass senescence by upregulating c-myc and repressing p16 levels The cells then bypass cell crisis with acquisition of telomerase activity, Ink4a/Arf locus deletion and Rb hyperphosphorylation Other transformation-associated changes include modulation of mitochondrial metabolism, DNA damage-repair proteins and cell cycle regulators In this work we have characterized the molecular mechanisms implicated in TMC generation and we propose a two-stage model by which a human MSC becomes a tumor cell