Natàlia Pallarès

IDIBELL Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute | IDIBELL · Statistics advisory service

Background: We aimed to assess the incidence, etiology and outcomes of catheter-related bloodstream infection (CRBSI) in onco-hematological patients, to assess the differences between patients with hematological malignancies (HMs) and solid tumors (STs) and to identify the risk factors for Gram-negative (GN) CRBSI. Methods: All consecutive episodes...

Introduction: The profiles of patients with COVID-19 have been widely studied, but little is known about differences in baseline characteristics and in outcomes between subjects with a ceiling of care assigned at hospital admission and subjects without a ceiling of care. The aim of this study is to compare, by ceiling of care, clinical features an...

Objective: To determine the health status and exercise capacity of COVID-19 survivors one year after hospital discharge. Methods: This multicenter prospective study included COVID-19 survivors 12 months after hospital discharge. Participants were randomly selected from a large cohort of COVID-19 patients who had been hospitalized until 15th Apri...

Background Surgical failure-to-rescue (FTR, death rate following complications) is a reliable cross-sectional quality of care marker, but has not been evaluated dynamically. We aimed to study changes in FTR following emergency surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Material and methods Matched cohort study including all COVID-19-non-infected adult...

Objectives: The usefulness of routine microbiological testing for rationalizing antibiotic use in hospitalized patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) continues to be a subject of debate. We aim to determine the effect of positive microbiological testing on antimicrobial de-escalation and clinical outcomes in CAP. Methods: A retrospecti...

Objectives We aimed to develop and validate a fracture risk algorithm for the automatic identification of subjects at high risk of imminent and long-term fracture risk. Research, design, and methods A cohort of subjects aged 50–85, between 2007 and 2017, was extracted from the Catalan information system for the development of research in primary c...

Ceftolozane-tazobactam (C/T) has been shown to be a safe and effective alternative for the treatment of difficult to treat infections due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) in the general nonimmunocompromised population. However, the experience of this agent in immunosuppressed neutropenic patients is very limited.

Background COVID-19 has quickly become a global pandemic with a substantial number of deaths and is a considerable burden for healthcare systems worldwide. Although most cases are paucisymptomatic and limited to the viral infection-related symptoms, some patients evolve to a second phase, with an impaired inflammatory response (cytokine storm) that...

To assess the effect of combination antibiotic empirical therapy on 30-day case-fatality rate in neutropenic cancer patients with Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) bacteremic pneumonia. This was a multinational, retrospective cohort study of neutropenic onco-hematological patients with PA bloodstream infection (BSI) (2006–2018). The effect of appropriate...

Background Computed tomography images acquired during routine cancer care provide an opportunity to determine body composition with accuracy and precision. Quantification of skeletal muscle is of interest owing to its association with clinical outcomes. However, the standards of precision testing considered mandatory in other areas of radiology are...

Contact tuberculosis tracing is essential to identify recently infected people, who therefore merit preventive treatment. However, there are no diagnostic tests that can determine whether the infection is a result of a recent exposure or not.

Background: COVID-19 infection is associated with a higher mortality rate in surgical patients, but surgical risk scores have not been validated in the emergency setting. We aimed to study the capacity for postoperative mortality prediction of the P-POSSUM score in COVID-19-positive patients submitted to emergency general and digestive surgery. M...

Background: The clinical value of transanal total mesorectal excision is debated. Objective: To compare short- and medium-term effects of transanal versus anterior total mesorectal excision for rectal cancer. Design: This was a multicenter retrospective cohort study. Setting: The study included all Catalonian public hospitals. Patients: Al...

Introduction: Antibiotic overuse is directly related to antibiotic resistance, and primary care is one of the main reasons for this overuse. This study aims to demonstrate that including experts on infectious diseases (ID) within the antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programme team in primary care settings achieves higher reductions in overall antib...

We assessed forty HNC patients receiving treatment with curative intent. Specific quantitative muscle and fat changes were evaluated using CT. Nutrition support was provided according to ESPEN guidelines, with adjusted body weight (ABW) in overweight/obese patients used to define their nutritional targets. Linear regression models were used to eval...

Outcomes of kidney transplantation (KT) after controlled circulatory death (cDCD) with highly expanded criteria donors (ECD) and recipients have not been thoroughly evaluated. We analyzed in a multi-center cohort of 1,161 consecutive KT, granular baseline donor and recipient factors predicting transplant outcomes, selected by bootstrapping and Cox...

Background: Few surgical studies have provided adjusted comparative postoperative outcome data among contemporary patients with and without COVID-19 infection and patients treated before the pandemic. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of performing emergency surgery in patients with concomitant COVID-19 infection. Methods: Patien...

Introduction: Methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) bacteraemia is a frequent condition, with high mortality rates. There is a growing interest in identifying new therapeutic regimens able to reduce therapeutic failure and mortality observed with the standard of care of beta-lactam monotherapy. In vitro and small-scale studies have...

Objectives To determine the health status, exercise capacity, and health related quality of life (HRQoL) of COVID-19 associated acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) survivors, 8 months after diagnosis. Methods All eligible patients were interviewed and underwent a physical examination, chest X-ray, and 6-minute walk test (6MWT). Scales to ev...

Background: We aimed to describe the epidemiology, risk factors, and clinical outcomes of co-infections and superinfections in onco-hematological patients with COVID-19. Methods: International, multicentre cohort study of cancer patients with COVID-19. All patients were included in the analysis of co-infections at diagnosis, while only patients...

Objectives The effect of the use of immunomodulatory drugs on the risk of developing hospital-acquired bloodstream infection (BSI) in patients with COVID-19 has not been specifically assessed. We aim to identify risk factors for, and outcomes of, BSI among hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia. Methods We performed a severity matche...

Background Reduced muscle mass has been associated with increased treatment complications in several tumor types. We evaluated the impact of skeletal muscle index (SMI) on prognosis and immune-related adverse events (IrAEs) in a cohort of recurrent/metastatic (R/M) head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) treated with immune checkpoints inhibi...

Objective: To test the hypothesis that the addition of an aminoglycoside to a ß-lactam antibiotic could provide better outcomes than ß-lactam monotherapy for the initial empirical treatment of hematological neutropenic patients with subsequently documented Gram-negative bacilli (GNB) bloodstream infection (BSI). Methods: Multinational, retrospectiv...

Background Peri-implant fractures occur in association with an implant, used to treat a previous injury that is still attached to the bone. We recently published a proposal for a classification system for peri-implant femoral fractures [Videla-Cés, Injury,2019]. Aim To assess the agreement of our classification system for peri-implant femoral frac...

Bisphosphonates are the first‐line treatment for preventing fractures in osteoporosis patients. However, their use is contraindicated or to be used with caution in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients, primarily due to a lack of information about their safety and effectiveness. We aimed to investigate the safety of oral bisphosphonates in patients...

Background Acute cardiac events (ACE) are increasingly being recognized as a major complication in pneumococcal community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). Information regarding host- and pathogen-related factors for ACE, including pneumococcal serotypes and clonal complexes, is scarce. Methods A retrospective study was conducted of a prospective cohort o...

Background: We aimed to determine whether daptomycin plus fosfomycin provides higher treatment success than daptomycin alone for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia and endocarditis. Methods: A randomized (1:1) phase III superiority, open-label, and parallel group clinical trial of adult inpatients with MRSA bacteremia...

Background: Lung transplantation is the ultimate treatment for end stage lung disease. There is paucity of data on the impact of surgical incision and analgesia on clinically relevant outcomes. Methods: A single centre retrospective study was performed between July 2007 and August 2017 of patients undergoing single or double lung transplantation....

Background: We aimed to assess the rate and predictive factors of bloodstream infection (BSI) due to multidrug-resistant (MDR) Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) in neutropenic cancer patients. Methods: We performed a multicenter, retrospective cohort study including onco-hematological neutropenic patients with BSI due to PA conducted across 34 centers in...

Oral Bisphosphonates (oBP) have been associated with reduced fractures and mortality. However, their risks and benefits are unclear in patients with moderate‐severe CKD. This study examined the association between oBP and all‐cause mortality in G3B‐5D CKD. This is a population‐based cohort study including all subjects with an eGFR<45/ml/min/1.73m2...

Background: Mortality rates from Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia are high and have only modestly improved in recent decades. We compared the efficacies of a β-lactam in combination with daptomycin (BL/D-C) and β-lactam monotherapy (BL-M) in improving clinical outcomes in methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) bacteremia. Methods: A retrospect...

Background and study aims: the use of endoscopic ultrasound-guided biliary drainage (EUS-BD) has increased in cases of failed endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and there are some concerns. The main aim of the study was to determine the role of EUS-BD in a palliative case cohort. The secondary aim was to compare the efficacy, sa...

Trace elements are a possible risk factor for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). However, their role in the occurrence and persistence of KRAS mutations remains unstudied. There appear to be no studies analyzing biomarkers of trace elements and KRAS mutations in any human cancer. We aimed to determine whether patients with KRAS mutated and no...

Abtract Aim The oncological risk/benefit trade‐off for laparoscopy in rectal cancer is controversial. Our aim was to compare laparoscopic versus open surgery for resection of rectal cancer, using unselected data from the public healthcare system of Catalonia (Spain). Methods This is a multicentre retrospective cohort study of all patients who had...

Background Daptomycin plus fosfomycin combination has demonstrated synergistic and bactericidal effect in animal models of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (MRSAB), but there is lack of data in humans. Method A randomized (1:1), open-label, clinical trial involving adults with MRSAB was conducted at 18 medical centers in Spai...

Background The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the placement of a coaxial double-pigtail plastic stent (DPS) within a lumen-apposing metal stent (LAMS) may improve the safety of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided drainage of pancreatic fluid collections (PFCs). Methods This was a retrospective cohort study including patients with PFCs and...

We introduce an R package that estimates decision thresholds in diagnostic settings with a continuous marker and two or three underlying states. The package implements parametric and non-parametric estimation methods based on minimizing an overall cost function, as well as confidence interval estimation approaches to account for the sampling variab...

Objective: To explore factors influencing perceptions and viewpoints on the responsibility for the presence of toxic substances in food, on enforcement of laws and regulations that control human exposure to toxic substances in food, and on the effectiveness of such regulations. Methods: An online survey was completed by 740 individuals from seve...

Background: Self-rated health (SRH) is a powerful predictor of mortality, morbidity, and need for health services. SRH generally increases with educational level, and decreases with age, number of chronic conditions, and body mass index (BMI). Because human concentrations of most persistent organic pollutants (POPs) also vary by age, education, an...