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Monday, 07/23/2012
Pilar Martínez Olondris successfully defended her doctoral thesis: “Mechanical ventilator-associated pneumonia in a Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus piglet animal model”
The public event was held last July 12th in the University of Barcelona, Faculty of Medicine
Pilar Martínez Olondris has a degree in Medicine from the University of Navarre. She is a specialist in respiratory medicine. Since 2006, she has been working on the Animal model of ventilator-associated pneumonia in the Applied Research in Respiratory diseases group in IDIBAPS of Barcelona. During her doctoral thesis in Hospital Clínic, Dr. Martínez Olondris research validated a VAP animal model to compare the efficacy of different antibiotics. Results were published in high impact factor journals such as The European Respiratory Journal or Critical Care Medicine. The public event took place last July 12th in the University of Barcelona, Faculty of Medicine, Room 14, and the thesis tribunal comprised Dra. Rosario Menéndez, from Hospital La Fe in Valencia, Dr. Ignacio Martín-Loches, from Parc Taulí, and Dr. Josep Mª Miró, from Hospital Clínic of Barcelona.
One of the articles with Pilar Martínez Olondris as its first author was titled An experimental model of pneumonia induced by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in ventilated piglets (Eur Respir J. 2010 Oct;36(4):901-6. Epub 2010 Mar 29). It validated a model of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) pneumonia in ventilated piglets and studied the time-course of biological markers and histopathological changes. In ventilated piglets, bronchoscopic inoculation of MRSA induces pneumonia at 12 h and severe pneumonia at 24 h. Another recent work was titled Efficacy of linezolid compared to vancomycin in an experimental model of pneumonia induced by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in ventilated pigs (Critical Care Medicine. 2012 Jan;40(1):162-8). In these experiments in an animal model of MRSA pneumonia, linezolid showed a better efficacy than vancomycin showed because of a better pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics index.
Dr. Pilar Martínez Olondris brilliantly defended her doctoral thesis and obtained the best qualification, Excellent Cum Laude. The thesis' tribunal underlined the complexity and the Multidisciplinary Approach of the investigation. They showed interest in the central role developed by the PhD Researcher during the investigations, and acknowledged the leadership of the thesis directors Dr. Dolors Soy and Prof. Antoni Torres.