Filipa Malheiro , Hospital da Luz specialist in Internal Medicine, concluded her doctorate degree in Health Sciences – Medicine, last July 1, at the Faculty of Medical Sciences / Nova Medical School, Lisbon Nova University. In her thesis – entitled “Immunomodulation in acute pancreatitis: how can cytokines, B cells and T cells predict the severity of disease” – the physician studied the evolution of acute pancreatitis and the relation with B and T cells and cytokines in the peripheral blood of patients. Pancreas is a gland part of the digestive and endocrine systems, located near the stomach, that has as main function to produce the pancreatic juice containing the enzymes used in the digestion of foods, and to produce hormones, the more familiar being insulin (which regulates glycaemia, the level of sugar in the blood). Pancreatitis is a disease characterized by the inflammation of the pancreas, which can be acute (of relatively short duration) or chronic (when the inflammation persists for years). The pathogenic mechanisms are not yet fully known. In her research, Filipa Malheiro studied how cytokines and B and T cells can help predict the severity of acute pancreatitis. In her conclusions, the physician highlights that “B and T lymphocytes and cytokines in the peripheral blood of patients with acute pancreatitis suffer alterations in the course of evolution of the disease and are related with the severity of the disease and length of hospitalization”. The works in the context of this thesis counted with the support of Luz Saúde Clinical Research Program. In the photo above, the new doctor and the members of the doctorate jury: Paulo Paixão (Faculty of Medical Sciences / Nova Medical School – FCM/NMS), Vasco Barreto (Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences), Inês Chora (Faculty of Medicine, Porto University), Lélita Santos (Faculty of Medicine, Coimbra University), Luís Miguel Borrego (FCM/NMS) and Roberto Palma dos Reis (FCM/NMS).
