The Societat Catalanobalear de Medicina Interna (SCBMI) has awarded a study led by Dr. Josep Pardos Gea, investigator of the Systemic Diseases research group of the Vall Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) led by Dr. Jaume Alijotas Reig, with the Joan Vivancos award for the best article published during 2021. The study, published in the journal Rheumatology (Oxford), establishes that having persistent thrombocytopenia, i.e. a lower than the usual number of platelets, is a major risk factor for thrombosis in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS).

This study has followed up and compiled data from a subgroup of 114 patients diagnosed with APS, treated and monitored at the Systemic Autoimmune Diseases Unit of the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital from 1980 to 2018. Dr. José Pardos Gea emphasizes that the association between thrombocytopenia and APS is only apparent when data are reviewed over a long historical view and therefore had not been confirmed until this study.

The analysis establishes that the risk of thrombosis and, therefore, lower patient survival occurs in cases of moderate and mild thrombocytopenia, with a range of 50 to 150 x109 platelets/liter, while the relationship is not so clear with severe thrombocytopenia. From the study, we see the need to take this factor into account when monitoring patients, as well as when studying the pathogenesis of the disease and developing therapeutic strategies.

The Systemic Diseases Clinical Unit, as well as the Systemic Diseases Research Unit, has been working with this pathology for over 40 years. "We monitor almost 900 patients with SAF and we also lead the European EUROAPS registry where there are over 2,000 cases. We also participate in other international projects such as APS-ACTION, CORA or SKY-LARK. We have the expertise, this allows us to treat patients better. We continue working and studying these diseases," says Dr. Jaume Alijotas Reig.

The SCBMI is a non-profit association that is part of the Academy of Medical and Health Sciences of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands and brings together specialists in Internal Medicine throughout the territory. Each year they give the Joan Vivancos Award for the best article published during the previous year; the Bartolomé Cabrer Award for the best Doctoral Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Medicine read during the previous year; and the award to the young researcher with the best publication.