Clinical trials

Adults who are unconscious or severely ill and need a breathing tube connected to a ventilator are at high risk of developing a lung infection (pneumonia) within the first few days in the intensive care unit. This early pneumonia affects up to 30 to 50 % of certain high-risk patients, prolongs the time on the ventilator and in hospital, and increases the use of antibiotics. Two strategies are commonly used today to try to prevent this infection: a short, three-day course of an intravenous antibiotic, and removal of secretions from the airway with a sterile suction catheter. Both have limitations - antibiotics can favour the growth of resistant bacteria, and catheter suctioning is uncomfortable and may injure the airway. PIRÁMIDES is a small (60-patient) pilot study that compares the current practice with two non-invasive, mechanical alternatives for keeping the airway clear: a continuous low-pressure suction system built into a special breathing tube, and a device that produces a gentle, programmed "artificial cough" through the ventilator. Adult patients who are intubated for severe trauma, severe brain injury, stroke, resuscitated cardiac arrest or other causes of decreased consciousness are randomly assigned, in equal numbers, to one of the three approaches and followed for 14 days, with a final visit at day 90. The main goal is to find out which of the three strategies best prevents early pneumonia, and which provides the best overall result for patients when survival, severity of infection, need for additional antibiotics and side effects are considered together. To make these comparisons as fair as possible in an open-label study, an independent committee of doctors not involved in patient care reviews each suspected pneumonia case without knowing which strategy the patient received. The results will help design a larger trial to confirm which approach is safest and most effective for preventing early pneumonia in critically ill patients on a ventilator.

Asthma affects a large number of adults, and many of them do not achieve good control of their symptoms. Poor inhaler technique, irregular medication use, and the lack of structured nursing follow-up are among the main reasons. RESPiraIA-Asma is a 12-month structured nursing intervention designed to address these gaps in adults with poorly controlled, non-severe asthma. This is a quasi-experimental, single-group, before-and-after pilot study. Each participant is followed across six visits over one year, at baseline and at months 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12. The intervention combines therapeutic education, inhaler technique training, home peak-flow self-monitoring, biopsychosocial assessment, and a standardized nursing care plan based on internationally recognized nursing taxonomies for diagnoses, interventions, and outcomes: NANDA International (NANDA-I), Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC), and Nursing Outcomes Classification (NOC), activated by objective clinical thresholds. A central principle of the model is digital equity: the same standard of care is offered through three equivalent access routes (digital, mixed, or in-person), chosen according to each participant's digital skills, resources, and preferences, so that technology never becomes a barrier to access. The study evaluates whether the model is feasible to deliver in routine clinical practice, measured through participant retention, data completeness, and acceptability, and it looks for preliminary signals of its effect on asthma control, treatment adherence, lung function, and biopsychosocial well-being. As an exploratory pilot, it is not designed to confirm efficacy; its purpose is to inform the design of a larger future trial.

The goal of this clinical trial is to investigate the effect of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques in the progression of primary progressive aphasia for 6 months. We will compare three modalities of brain stimulation (TMS, tDCS, TMS+tDCS) against sham stimulation. All patients will receive also language therapy.

The mechanisms that maintain persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) in humans remain unknown. In the research project PI18/01268 funded in the previous call for Strategic Action in Health, the group has demonstrated that the hierarchical organization of (i) rotational domains, (ii) frequency domains and (iii) physiological responses to pharmacological provocation with adenosine, allow the identification of domains of high-frequency reentrant activity (hereinafter "DFASI domains") maintainers of AF. As a result, the investigators have developed non-invasive technological models and quantitative indices for the efficient localization of these domains, whose therapeutic approach through ablation has allowed to improve the clinical results of the patients studied, safely without increase in complications (Calvo D et al. Sci Rep. 2025 Dec 16;15(1):43892). Likewise, and in response to the objectives of the PI18/01268 project, the investigators have identified hierarchical organization patterns in human ventricular fibrillation (VF) that indicate the existence of universal fibrillatory mechanisms, opening the door to new therapeutic opportunities (Europace 2022;24\[11\]:1788-1799).

The present prospective cohort study (not randomized) analyses the value of screening and treatment of SAHS in the management of patients with AF refractory to antiarrhythmics drugs, potentially candidates for ablation. Patients at low risk of suffering from SAHS will follow conventional management of their AF, according to the usual criteria of the Arrhythmia Unit. Patients with high or intermediate risk of SAHS, will undergo respiratory polygraphy. If the result is positive, they will be treated as standard for this syndrome and their heart rate will be monitored for 3 months. After this, the patient's arrhythmic load will be reevaluated differentiating patients into two groups, those that must be ablated from those that have improved their condition and the clinical criteria is no longer ablation but follow-up.

The goal of this clinical trial is to compare two different techniques: endoscopic saphenous vein harvesting versus conventional open harvesting in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting, either alone or in combination with another cardiac surgical procedure (valve surgery or arrhythmia surgery). The main questions the trial aims to answer are: Does the endoscopic technique reduce surgical wound morbidity in terms of shorter hospital stays? Does endoscopic saphenous harvesting reduce the use of antibiotics for saphenectomy wound infections? Does the endoscopic technique reduce need for wound dressings due to necrosis and/or wound infection, and reduce need for analgesic treatment for wound pain? This prospective, randomized study will be conducted in the Cardiovascular Surgery Service at Hospital Clínico San Carlos. Participants will be randomly assigned to a different saphenectomy technique. All patients will be assessed for saphenectomy wound complications upon discharge, and by phone call at 7 days, 1 month, and 3 months following the intervention.

Multicenter longitudinal observational ambispective (retrospective cases from 2014 and prospective from 2018 onwards) cohort study. The registry recruits a series of consecutive patients admitted for moderate-high risk or high-risk pulmonary embolism (according to 2019 European Society of Cardiology guidelines) treated invasively. This study aims to describe the acute management of the safety and effectiveness of different percutaneous interventions for acute pulmonary embolism.

Multicenter, randomized open label clinical trial to evaluate IEM and HS as concomitant therapy for respiratory tract infection in patients under artificial ventilation in the ICU. Lung infection is a serious complication that may occur during hospital stay and may need artificial respiration or even develop during artificial ventilation for other causes. Current specific treatment consists of intravenous antibiotics. The current study evaluated whether aspiration and drainage of infected sputum helps curing this severe complication and whether nebulized HS has additional benefits, like loosening of secretions, eradicating bacteria or reducing inflammation.

The goal of this clinical trial is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy in the surgical resection of glioblastoma (GBM). The main questions it aims to answer are: * What is the safety profile of neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy in terms of neurological deficit, radionecrosis, edema, headache, wound dehiscence, infection, and cerebrospinal fluid fistula? * What is the efficacy of neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy in terms of progression-free survival, overall survival, cognitive function, and quality of life? Participants will undergo the following tasks and treatments: * Stereotactic biopsy and diagnosis confirmation. * Conformal hypofractionated stereotactic radiotherapy with concurrent temozolomide. * Supramarginal resection guided by 5-ALA under intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring. * Maintenance temozolomide administration for 6 months. Researchers will compare the group receiving neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy to the control group following the standard Stupp protocol to assess safety and efficacy outcomes.

Coronary-related myocardial ischemia can result from obstructive epicardial stenosis or non-obstructive causes including coronary microcirculatory dysfunction and vasomotor disorders. This prospective study has been created in order to provide knowledge in the field of non-obstructive coronary artery disease.