PhD Thesis: Impact of air pollution on inflammation, oxidative stress and 1-year prognosis in patients hospitalized for acute coronary ischemic pathology.

The 30 of October 2015, Rubén Alfonso Juárez Prera did the dissertation of the research Impact of air pollution on inflammation, oxidative stress and 1-year prognosis in patients hospitalized for acute coronary ischemic pathology.

This research was supervised by:

Professor Pedro Abreu González, University of La Laguna.
Dr. Alberto Domínguez Rodríguez, Hospital Universitario de Canarias.
Dr. Sergio Rodríguez González, Izaña Atmospheric Research Centre.

The dissertation was performed in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of La Laguna and was evaluated by:

Profesor Armando Torres Ramírez, Universidad de La Laguna.
Dra. Remedios Alemán Valls, Hospital Universitario de Canarias.
Dr. Pablo Avanzas Fernández, Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias.

Who awarded this research with the maximum qualification Excellent CumLauden.

Rubén Alfonso Juárez-Prera during the defense of doctoral thesis.

From left to right: Professor Pedro Abreu-González, Dr. Alberto Domínguez-Rodríguez, Dr. Rubén Alfonso-Juárez Prera and Dr. Sergio Rodríguez-González.

About 8 million people die every year due to exposure to air pollution according to the World Health Organization. Ischemic heart disease accounts for about 40% of such deaths. In this scientific research Rubén Alfonso Juárez Prera showed that there is an association between exposure to soot black carbon particles (typically emitted by diesel vehicle exhaust, ships and other industrial sources) and the presence of molecules biomarkers of oxidative stress that may prompt some hearth diseases. This research allowed to identify the profile of people that may suffer a new heart disease due to exposure to air pollution in a short time period (about weeks). This research was performed with experimental data collected in Tenerife Island: (i) air pollutants in the ambient, and (ii) biomarkers in the blood of patients affected by heart diseases. This research was performed with funds provided by Health Research Funds (Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria), Institute of Health Carlos III and FEDER (PI12/00092).