We are the combination of four hospitals: the General Hospital, the Children’s Hospital, the Women’s Hospital and the Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns Hospital. We are part of the Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus: a world-leading health park where healthcare plays a crucial role.
Patients are the centre and the core of our system. We are professionals committed to quality care and our organizational structure breaks down the traditional boundaries between departments and professional groups, with an exclusive model of knowledge areas.
Would you like to know what your stay at Vall d'Hebron will be like? Here you will find all the information.
The commitment of Vall d'Hebron University Hospital to innovation allows us to be at the forefront of medicine, providing first class care adapted to the changing needs of each patient.
The thyroid gland, which is located in the anterior part of the neck and is shaped like a butterfly, produces thyroid hormones, which regulate the metabolism of the entire human body. They therefore influence, for example, our temperature and heart rate. The main causes of hyperthyroidism are: Graves’ disease (when an antibody against the body’s own thyroids is produced), a toxic multinodular goiter (makes too much thyroid hormone), and thyroiditis (inflammation of the thyroid of unknown origin).
The most common symptoms are altered heart rate, feverish temperature, nervousness and sweating, dry skin and unexplained weight loss.
It can affect people of all ages, but particularly women from adolescence to menopause.
Hyperthyroidism is detected by finding thyroid hormones in the blood, as well as the pituitary hormones tasked with regulation of thyroid hormones.
Treatment is aimed at reducing the action of excess thyroid hormones. Drugs are used that antagonise the hormones, usually orally. Drugs are also prescribed to slow heart rate. In some cases, radioactive iodine is administered to partially deactivate the hormone-producing thyroid cells in a controlled manner.
The most common test is a blood test. Other additional tests include thyroid scintigraphy and thyroid ultrasound.
In order for the thyroid gland to function normally, moderate consumption of iodised salt is recommended, as iodine is an essential component of thyroid hormones.
Minority diseases, also called rare diseases, are those that affect between 5% and 7% of the population. They are very varied, affecting different parts of the body with a wide range of symptoms that change both between diseases and within the same disease. It is estimated that some 30 million people in the EU, 3 million in Spain, and around 350,000 in Catalonia suffer from one.
The complexity of most rare diseases requires multidisciplinary care with professionals from different medical specialities, case management for nursing, psychological support and also social work.
The Vall d'Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus is home to more than 100 specialist professionals dedicated to the care of more than 2,000 rare diseases. Apart from treating the most rare diseases of any centre in Spain, it is one of the leading hospitals in Europe in this field. In fact, Vall d'Hebron is part of 20 European reference networks, known as ERN. This makes this hospital a highly specialised centre for rare diseases, from birth to adulthood, through a networked system that allows sharing of resources and knowledge with other world-class hospitals.
Adult and child
Pediatric
This concentration of patients with rare diseases at Vall d'Hebron improves knowledge and promotes research. Research in this field focuses above all on improving diagnostic capacity for diseases that are often difficult to diagnose and on developing new treatments for those diseases. In the case of diseases with few patients, publicly funded research is often the main avenue for the discovery of new drugs, and public health is the framework that provides the public with access to high medication complexity.
For more information, contact the Rare Disease Team at the following email address: minoritaries@vallhebron.cat
Hypoglycaemia usually occurs in people with diabetes, when the level of glucose in the blood falls dangerously low. Hypoglycaemia is when the capillary glycaemia (measured in a drop of blood from the finger) falls below 70 mg/dl. It can occur in the case of an excessive dose of antidiabetic treatment (pills or insulin), due to a decrease or delay in intake of food, an increase in normal exercise or alcohol abuse.
The symptoms of hypoglycaemia are sweating, trembling, chills, hungry sensation, headaches, blurred vision, irritability, dizziness and, in very serious cases, loss of consciousness.
For people who may experience hypoglycaemia, we recommend:
Diabetes is an illness that manifests itself as an increase in blood glucose, which is called hyperglycaemia. There are two types, type 1 and 2.
The goal of treatment of the disease is to reduce it, and maintain normal glucose values in the blood, glycaemia.
To achieve this, there are two types of medication: non-insulin hypoglycaemics and insulin. The non-insulin treatment is used to reduce glycaemia and is only used to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus, when diet and physical exercise are not enough to regulate the level of sugar in the blood.
Type 1 diabetes must be treated with insulin, a hormone that is essential for life that is normally created by our bodies, and which needs to be replaced when a patient is unable to generate it. Insulin cannot be administered orally meaning it needs to be administered subcutaneously, usually with pre-filled pen injectors.
Although insulin treatment is essential in treating type 1 diabetes, patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus may also need it at some point in their illness.
The Endocrinology and Nutrition Service provides care for patients with endocrine gland diseases, which secrete hormones into the blood flow, as well as metabolism and all aspects relating to nutritional status at all stages of life. Thanks to translational research, carried out on our hospital campus, we can apply basic research to prevention and treatment, thus optimising patient care in terms of prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
In our department we treat diseases such as diabetes, morbid or severe obesity and the alterations derived from benign or malignant pathology of endocrine glands (ex. pituitary, thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal, ovary / testicle). We also diagnose and treat the chronic complications of diabetes, dyslipidaemia and other metabolic disorders. We have the following functional units:
The specialisation of endocrinology and nutrition includes the study and treatment of disorders of the endocrine glands, the metabolism and all aspects related to nutritional condition.
Endocrinology and nutrition training itinerary
This includes basic clinical knowledge of diagnostic techniques, dietary and therapeutic measures and all aspects of preventative medicine related to these fields. Other specialist departments are also involved in the Endocrinology and Nutrition Teaching Unit, such as Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Nephrology, Neurology, Paediatrics, Nuclear Medicine, and the Nutritional Support Unit and the Accident and Emergency Department.
Diabetes is a chronic disease brought about by the body’s inability to process sugar effectively. It occurs when the pancreas cannot produce insulin, or when the body cannot put it to use. This means there are high levels of glucose in the blood, which can damage organs, tissues and limbs if it remains high for a long time.
There are two types of diabetes: 1 and 2. Type 1 can only be treated with insulin, whereas type 2 can be prevented through doing sport, taking exercise and diet.
There are different types of diabetes depending on the harm they cause:
There are several symptoms which may or may not appear. The most common are:
In the case of type 1 diabetes, these symptoms may appear suddenly or over time, and may significantly affect general well-being.
Between 1980 and 2014, diabetes in adults rose from 4.7 % to 8.5 %. In addition, it has been found to be on the increase in countries with low and middle incomes.
It can be detected with a blood test analysed in the laboratory to measure glucose levels. Diabetes is confirmed if the level is equal to or higher than 126 mg/dL on two occasions. A normal glucose level would be between 110 and 125 mg/dL.
In the case of type 2 diabetes, it can be in the body for many years without detection. For this reason, it is often diagnosed when a complication arises or as the result of a routine blood test.
There are several types of medication that lower blood glucose levels. Each type of diabetes requires different treatment.
Type 1 diabetes cannot be prevented, but environmental factors leading to the process that destroys insulin producing cells in the pancreas are being studied.
On the other hand, a balanced diet and increased physical exercise can help prevent type 2 diabetes. In other words, obesity should be avoided.
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