2021 · BMC medical research methodology · open access
Feasibility of a hybrid clinical trial for respiratory virus detection in toddlers during the influenza season
Muñoz-Ramírez et al.
The finding, in our words
A hybrid trial in 99 toddlers achieved 97% adherence to electronic symptom diaries and obtained valid home-collected nasal swabs in 81% of acute respiratory infection episodes, demonstrating that decentralised procedures with parental self-sampling can reliably support respiratory virus diagnosis in paediatric vaccine trials.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
This study used home self-collected saliva samples to successfully monitor cytokines and cortisol in mothers and infants, finding that a community singing intervention significantly reduced salivary interleukin-6 levels in mothers with postnatal depression.
Kirkpatrick et al., Brain, behavior, and immunity (paywalled) · source ↗
Frequent dried blood spot sampling detected early changes in beta-cell function more effectively than mixed-meal tolerance tests or urine ratios, supporting its potential as a decentralised monitoring tool for clinical trials.
Dunseath et al., Diabetes care (paywalled) · source ↗
Worked case studies of patient-centric sampling deployed in pharmaceutical drug development: how sponsors have implemented it, rather than whether it is possible.
Patel et al., The AAPS Journal (paywalled) · source ↗
A study of 292 patients found that the slopes of home-collected stimulated dried blood spot C-peptide levels over six months predicted 12-month venous mixed-meal tolerance test results, P<0.001. This shows decentralised microsampling can monitor beta-cell function, though further validation is required to confirm its reliability and broader applicability.
Hendriks et al., Diabetes care (paywalled) · source ↗
In at-home and trial settings, a wet capillary device reliably collected a median ~450 µL with a 4.4% failure rate; 88% of adults preferred self-collection over venipuncture, with lower pain.