The visit at the 3rd trimester, essential for the BiSC project

One of the essential parts of the BiSC project is the 32-week visit that takes place in the different participating hospitals. During it, the patients meet again with the nurses who participate in the project, Julia and Estela, and with the obstetricians who will perform the ultrasound examinations.

Within the ultrasound examinations we perform, we carry out the assessment of fetal growth and the study of placental function, which, as we mentioned in previous news, is a fundamental organ during pregnancy.

What is this ultrasound? It consists in taking different measurements of the fetus, such as its head, abdomen and femur and to estimate its weight. So we can know if the fetus is growing correctly during the pregnancy. On the other hand, we assess the blood flow in different vessels, which inform us of […]

Jordi Sunyer, one of the principal investigators of the BiSC project, talks about air pollution and its implications for the health of the population

Last Wednesday, July 24, Jordi Sunyer Deu, one of the principal investigators of the BiSC project, visited TV3 studio, to discuss the existing environment-related problems of Barcelona in relation to the levels of air pollution, its implications for human health, and the relevance of the BiSC project, as well as the citizen participation in this study.

We leave the link of the program to see the whole story and we encourage you to take a look!

Tv3 visits BiSC study in the “Hospital de la Santa Creu i de Sant Pau”

On Tuesday, July 2, a television team from Catalonia visited the Hospital de Sant Pau in the context of the follow-up of one of the patients of the BiSC study.

Specifically, the report focused on the ultrasonography and hospital visit of the third trimester of the BiSC study, where obstetric ultrasound is performed that includes neurosonography and fetal echocardiography, that is, a specific echography of the heart and brain of the fetus in from which we will measure parameters of cardiac functioning and neuronal development that will be very useful to see possible differences conditioned by the environment since the prenatal stage.

The study volunteer and his partner arrived at the hospital for the visit, which began with the obstetric ultrasound carried out by one of the gynecologists at the BiSC […]

The number of volunteers is growing and we have now more than 50 BiSC babies! 

Every day that passes the BiSC family is bigger, the number of volunteers is growing and we have now more than 50 BiSC babies! 

We wanted to ask some participants that are already participating in the study how has it been their experience until now, and what motivation led them to be interested in the project. Here are some of their comments:

“Participating in BiSC seems to me to be very interesting, it is a very complete study, both at the mother and baby testing level and at home air pollution assessment. All the staff is very friendly and attentive, I think it can help you understand better the effects of contamination during pregnancy, and in a city like Barcelona, I find it very necessary. I am a biologist […]

During the month of June, the pilot trials of magnetic resonance will begin

One of the objectives of the BiSC project is to evaluate the impact of exposure to air pollution during pregnancy in the structural brain development of babies. A total of 400 babies from the BiSC project will participate in this test throughout the study.

During the month of June, we will begin pilot trials, and from September we will continue with the tests. For now, we are preparing the adapted bed so that the children have the maximum comfort and do not move since otherwise, the quality of the obtained image would not be good enough. We leave some photos of the current state of the bed, soon we will finish it and we can start with this test that will provide us very interesting information!

“In cities, traffic is one of the main sources of environmental pollution”

Environmental pollution in cities is a public health problem and is considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the most important global priorities.

Recently in the European Heart Journal, a German study was published, in which the researchers stated that environmental pollution caused 800,000 deaths per year and warned of the impact of this risk factor on big cities, since the numbers obtained were much higher to the ones estimated until then.

The BREATHE study, led by Jordi Sunyer, the same principal investigator of the BiSC project, highlighted the importance of air quality and in his conclusions stated that: “children in highly-contaminated schools had less cognitive development than children from the less-contaminated schools”.

In cities, traffic is […]

“As the BiSC project is growing, so is the team of people behind it”

In recent months we have had new additions to the BiSC project; we would like to welcome Sara Llobera and Susana Ramon as field workers, to Niko Kogevinas who will be in charge of the introduction of data and Júlia Huerta as a nurse at the “Hospital de la Santa Creu i de Sant Pau”, replacing Rosa Navarro who has left our team to dedicate himself to new projects, we wish her the best.

These new additions will support the fulfillment of the objectives of this great project. We will try to help reduce air pollution and build a cleaner Barcelona!

The text has been written by Núria Pey, an environmental worker of the BiSC project.

“It is beautiful to know that there is people who want to participate in studies such as BiSC to try to change the city where we live and where our children will grow”

This week, Sílvia Fochs, one of the nurses in the BiSC project, explains the content of the first visit of the participants who become part of the BiSC cohort around 12 weeks of gestation.

Throughout the visit, the participants have just been informed about the BiSC project, answer a small questionnaire about medical history and sign a set of consent; of a general nature (where they accept their participation in the study) and genetic (to be able to extract information from the biological samples that will be collected throughout the study, and to study the relation between certain diseases and the atmospheric contamination).

At the end of the visit, a […]

The first birth of the BiSC cohort

The first baby of the BiSC cohort was born; Leo, who was born on Thursday, April 4, 2019, at 3:00 a.m. at the “Hospital de la Santa Creu i de Sant Pau” in Barcelona. Both his mother, Sara and Leo are very well.

Leo’s family accompanied by Dra. Elisa Llurba, one of the principal investigators of the BiSC project

The BiSC study is the first study to evaluate the effect of air pollution on mothers and their children. From now on, Leo will be tracked to see how he grows up and how is his neurological development, then we will study the correlation between this development and the air pollution exposure that he received while he was in the uterus.

BiSC, a new birth cohort in Barcelona

The project BiSC began at the end of 2018 and there are now more than 190 pregnant women included.

The main objective of the BiSC project is to create a new birth cohort in Barcelona and study how Barcelona’s air pollution affects the development of the baby during pregnancy, among others. The latest published studies showed  that in 2010, the city has exceeded the maximum levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution established by the European directive; 98% of Barcelona residents are exposed to higher fine particulate levels than those recommended by the World Health Organization and it is estimated that 3,500 premature deaths are linked to pollution every year in Barcelona.

Barcelona from the air (Photography obtained from “El País”)

As we have seen in previous news, the […]