Marta Martín Fernández

• PhD
• Assistant Professor at University of Valladolid

The presence of a procoagulant state, COVID-19-related coagulopathy, and an increased rate of thrombotic events (TEs) is widely known about. However, descriptive studies are scarce. Here, we conducted a large retrospective study including 2894 hospitalized COVID-19 patients followed up during the first 18 months of the pandemic to completely charac...

Background/Objectives: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death worldwide, and the effectiveness of statin therapy is critically dependent on patient adherence and persistence. The aim of this study was to evaluate adherence and persistence in newly started and previously treated statin patients, with reference to cardiovascu...

Background: Sepsis is a major global health issue and the leading cause of death in critically ill patients, with rising incidence and associated healthcare costs. Early administration of antibiotic therapy is crucial, but increasing antibiotic resistance poses a threat. Beta-lactam antibiotics, commonly used as a first-line therapy option against...

Background Despite the high mortality and economic burden associated with the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), the role of chest radiograph (CXR) in ARDS diagnosis and prognosis remains uncertain. The purpose of this study is to elucidate clinical characteristics that distinguish ARDS patients from those without ARDS, especially in patie...

Background: Diagnosing septic shock promptly is essential but challenging, especially due to its clinical similarity to non-septic shock. Extracellular vesicle-derived miRNAs may serve as biomarkers to distinguish septic shock from non-septic shock, providing a more accurate diagnostic tool for postsurgical patients. This study aims to identify ext...

Background Extracellular vesicles (EVs), containing microRNAs (miRNAs) and other molecules, play a central role in intercellular communication, especially in viral infections caused by SARS-CoV-2. This study explores the miRNA profiles in plasma-derived EVs from patients with severe COVID-19 vs controls, identifying potential mortality predictors....

Introduction: The present systematic review analyses the role of soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFLT-1) as an indirect biomarker of endothelial dysfunction in sepsis or septic shock from articles published in PubMed between 2010 and March 2022. Materials and methods: A systematic review of studies studying sFLT-1 monitoring in intensive car...

Introduction Prevalence and mortality of the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in intensive care units (ICU) are unacceptably high. There is scarce literature on post-operative sepsis-induced ARDS despite that sepsis and major surgery are conditions associated with ARDS. We aimed to examine the impact of post-operative sepsis-induced ARDS...

Sepsis is among the most common causes of death in intensive care units. Septic shock is a type of circulatory shock that shows signs and symptoms that are similar to non-septic shock. Despite the impact of shock on patients and the economic burden, knowledge of the pathophysiology of septic shock is scarce. In this context, weighted gene co-expres...

Introduction COVID-19 transmission has been characterized by the presence of asymptomatic patients. Additionally, most studies evaluating costs focus on symptomatic COVID-19 cases. Objective To describe the prevalence, characteristics, and costs of asymptomatic COVID-19 cases at admission in Spanish hospitals in 2020. Methods A nationwide study w...

Objective Driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs impairs skills essential for safe driving, increases the risk of being involved in a traffic accident and is particularly prevalent in Spain. The aim is to assess the prevalence of positive substance driving cases, what factors may be associated with driving after substance use, and the...

Objective: This study analyzed, at a postcode detailed level, the relation-ship between short-term exposure to environmental factors and hospital ad-missions, in-hospital mortality, ICU admission, and ICU mortality due to COVID-19 during the lockdown and post-lockdown 2020 period in Spain. Methods: We performed a nationwide population-based retr...

This economic evaluation reports the total and per patient costs of inpatient care for COVID-19 in Spain in 2020.

Background: procalcitonin is a valuable marker in the diagnosis of bacterial infections; however, the impairment of renal function can influence its diagnostic precision. The objective of this study is to evaluate the differential behaviour of procalcitonin, as well as its usefulness in the diagnosis of postoperative pulmonary infection after card...

Recent works have demonstrated a significant reduction in cholesterol levels and increased oxidative stress in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The cause of this alteration is not well known. This study aimed to comprehensively evaluate their possible association during the evolution of COVID-19. This is an observational prospecti...

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is characterised by an excess of hepatic fat that can progress to steatohepatitis, fibrosis, cirrhosis and hepatocarcinoma. The imbalance between lipid uptake/lipogenesis and lipid oxidation/secretion in the liver is a major feature of NAFLD. Given the lack of a non-invasive and reliable methods for the dia...

La autoevaluación se puede considerar como un proceso de autoformación, la cuál debería ser un objetivo principal en cualquier grado universitario actual, ya que permite al alumno modular y comprobar su aprendizaje de forma autónoma para contrastar lo aprendido versus los logros esperados. Se han identificado las principales áreas de conocimiento d...

Background High cytokine levels have been associated with severe COVID-19 disease. Although many cytokine studies have been performed, not many of them include combinatorial analysis of cytokine profiles through time. In this study we investigate the association of certain cytokine profiles and its evolution, and mortality in SARS-CoV2 infection in...

Respiratory viruses are part of the normal microbiota of the respiratory tract, which sometimes cause infection with/without respiratory insufficiency and the need for hospital or ICU admission. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of respiratory viruses in nontransplanted postoperative septic patients as well as lymphocyte count in...

Background: Despite growing interest in treatment strategies that limit oxygen exposure in ICU patients, no studies have compared conservative oxygen with standard oxygen in postsurgical patients with sepsis/septic shock, although there are indications that it may improve outcomes. It has been proven that high partial pressure of oxygen in arteria...

Pneumonia is the main cause of hospital admission in COVID-19 patients. We aimed to perform an extensive characterization of clinical, laboratory, and cytokine profiles in order to identify poor outcomes in COVID-19 patients. Methods: A prospective and consecutive study involving 108 COVID-19 patients was conducted between March and April 2020 at...

Background: Oxidative stress may be a key player in COVID-19 pathogenesis due to its significant role in response to infections. A defective redox balance has been related to viral pathogenesis developing a massive induction of cell death provoked by oxidative stress. The aim of this study is to perform a complete oxidative stress profile evaluati...

Severe status of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is extremely associated to cytokine release. Moreover, it has been suggested that blood group is also associated with the prevalence and severity of this disease. However, the relationship between the cytokine profile and blood group remains unclear in COVID-19 patients. In this sense, we prospec...

Antigen tests or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification are currently COVID-19 diagnostic tools. However, developing complementary diagnosis tools is mandatory. Thus, we performed a plasma cytokine array in COVID-19 patients to identify novel diagnostic biomarkers. A discovery–validation study in two independent prospective cohorts was perfo...

Sepsis is a major health problem worldwide. It is a time-dependent disease, with a high rate of morbidity and mortality. In this sense, an early diagnosis is essential to reduce these rates. The progressive increase of both the incidence and prevalence of sepsis has translated into a significant socioeconomic burden for health systems. Currently, i...

Objectives To obtain a gene expression signature to distinguish between septic shock and non-septic shock in postoperative patients, since patients with both conditions show similar signs and symptoms. Methods Differentially expressed genes were selected by microarray analysis in the discovery cohort. These genes were evaluated by quantitative rea...

Background: Pneumonia is the leading cause of hospital admission and mortality in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), attributed to a cytokine storm. The objective of our study is to characterize this profile to identify the cytokines responsible for lung damage and mortality. Methods: Plasma samples of 108 prospectively recruited COVID-19 patient...

Abstract Background COVID-19 can course with respiratory and extrapulmonary disease. SARS-CoV-2 RNA is detected in respiratory samples but also in blood, stool and urine. Severe COVID-19 is characterized by a dysregulated host response to this virus. We studied whether viral RNAemia or viral RNA load in plasma is associated with severe COVID-19 and...

Rationale: whether systemic dissemination of SARS-CoV-2 has any impact on COVID-19 severity and also on the immunological alterations observed in this disease is largely unknown. Objectives: We determined the association of plasma SARS-CoV-2 RNA with clinical severity, laboratory findings and immunological parameters in a cohort of 250 patients wit...

We read with great interest the comment published by Andrianopoulos et al. in which the authors advocate for cautious use of tocilizumab in COVID‐19 patients ¹. Tocilizumab is a monoclonal antibody against the interleukin‐6 receptor which has immunosuppressive properties. Whereas accumulating results from uncontrolled trials present tocilizumab as...

Background following the SEPSIS‐3 consensus, detection of organ failure as assessed by the SOFA (Sequential Organ Failure Assessment) score, is mandatory to detect sepsis. Calculating SOFA outside of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is challenging. The alternative in this scenario, the quick SOFA, is very specific but less sensible. Biomarkers could h...

Background: Stratification of the severity of infection is currently based on the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score, which is difficult to calculate outside the ICU. Biomarkers could help to stratify the severity of infection in surgical patients. Methods: Levels of ten biomarkers indicating endothelial dysfunction, 22 indicating...

Overuse of empiric antibiotic therapy in the ICU is responsible for promoting the dissemination of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria. Shortened antibiotic treatment duration could contribute to palliating the emergence of MDR. Uncertainty about patient evolution is a major concern for deciding to stop antibiotics. Biomarkers could represent a comp...

Increasing evidence supports a central role of the immune system in sepsis, but the current view of how sepsis affects immunity, and vice versa, is still rudimentary. The European Group on Immunology of Sepsis has identified major gaps that should be addressed with high priority, such as understanding how immunological alterations predispose to sep...

Background: Intensive care unit-acquired pneumonia (ICU-AP) is a severe complication in patients admitted to the ICU. Lymphocytopenia is a marker of poor prognosis in patients with community-acquired pneumonia, but its impact on ICU-AP prognosis is unknown. We aimed to evaluate whether lymphocytopenia is an independent risk factor for mortality in...

Background: Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a frequent cause of death worldwide. As recently described, CAP shows different biological endotypes. Improving characterization of these endotypes is needed to optimize individualized treatment of this disease. The potential value of the leukogram to assist prognosis in severe CAP has not been pre...

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Background: Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is one of the most commonly encountered intensive care unit (ICU) acquired infections worldwide. The objective of the study was to identify the immune alteration occurring in patients suffering from VAP at the transcriptomic level and explore its potential use for clinical diagnoses of this disease...

Acute vascular endothelial dysfunction is a central event in the pathogenesis of sepsis, increasing vascular permeability, promoting activation of the coagulation cascade, tissue edema and compromising perfusion of vital organs. Aging and chronic diseases (hypertension, dyslipidaemia, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular diseas...

Early recognition of sepsis is a key factor to improve survival to this disease in surgical patients, since it allows prompt control of the infectious source. Combining pro-inflammatory and immunosupression biomarkers could represent a good strategy to improve sepsis detection. Here we evaluated the combination of procalcitonin (PCT) with gene expr...

Acute vascular endothelial dysfunction is a central event in the pathogenesis of sepsis, increasing vascular permeability, promoting activation of the coagulation cascade, tissue edema and compromising perfusion of vital organs. Aging and chronic co-morbidities are recognized risk factors for sepsis. Interestingly, both aging and chronic diseases i...

Objectives: To quantify immunological dysfunction in surgical patients with presence/absence of sepsis using a droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) transcriptomic analysis. The study also aims to evaluate this approach for improving identification of sepsis in these patients. Background: Immune dysregulation is a central event in se...