Professor María José Fernández participates in research on the effects of a bacterium on those operated on

Alberto Sanchez Lozano

The Faculty of Health Sciences of the Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC) has been represented in an international investigation with other scientists from the Salem Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of Virginia. Professor María José Fernández Cotarelo has been in charge of participating in this study on the 'Clostridium Difficile' bacterium.

This unicellular organism affects the cognitive and functional systems of the human body post-operatively, and has a very high mortality rate in hospitalized elderly patients. Along with Professor Fernández Cotarelo, also a member of the Department of Internal Medicine of the Hospital Universitario de Móstoles, three other doctors participated: Doctors Jiménez Díez-Canseco and Sánchez Redondo, from Internal Medicine; and Dr. Pérez Pomata, from the Microbiology Service of the hospital.

Together with the professor and the Spanish doctors, researchers from the Salem Veterans Affairs Medical Center S. Nagy-Agren and B. Shenal, and C. Warren and M. Smolkin from the University of Virginia have worked. The study they have carried out, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, proves that patients infected with 'Clostridium Difficile' present 'delirium' more frequently during admission, deteriorate functionally and have a higher overall mortality even in the months after having discharged than other hospitalized patients of similar age and comorbidities.

The results of this study provide very valuable clinical information on the effects of infections by this bacterium. Consequences that could go beyond the affected intestine, according to the results. In this way, biomedical research continues to advance in the knowledge of the role of the intestine-brain axis and intestinal microbiotics in various diseases. This international collaboration between the different centers, including the URJC, is the result of a stay in the United States financed by the Carlos III Health Institute, the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine (SEMI) and the Society of Internal Medicine of Madrid-Castilla la Stain (SOMIMACA).