Feasibility of self-collection of fecal specimens by randomly sampled women for gut-microbiome studies
Feigelson et al.
The finding, in our words
Mailed at-home stool self-collection was feasible: ~20% of those approached enrolled and ~80% of those returned a usable specimen: workable, but recruitment depends on active, well-timed follow-up.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
This study found that stool samples self-collected on cards showed high correlation and agreement with ethanol-fixed samples for metagenomic sequencing, with negligible differences in microbial diversity. The results support the use of stool cards as a cost-effective alternative for decentralised sampling in epidemiologic studies, despite minor variations in individual species abundance.
This review summarises progress toward integrating automated sample preparation with on-chip nucleic acid amplification for home testing of self-collected blood, urine, saliva and stool specimens. It identifies that user-friendly, combined systems may enable rapid, accurate molecular diagnostics outside central laboratories, which is relevant for decentralised infectious disease screening.
A dissolvable wipe with DESS solution captured stool for metagenomics with high species-level agreement to frozen storage, R2 0.96, preserved Shannon diversity and species richness, and performed comparably to a commercial preservation kit, R2 0.98, enabling stable room temperature collection and transport for decentralised sampling.
A study found that fecal samples on FOBT cards and RNAlater, and oral samples in Scope mouthwash, remained stable for four days at room temperature, with fecal comparability ICCs ranging from 0.63 to 0.93. These methods support decentralised sampling, though consistent method choice is required as each may introduce modest differences.
Alpha diversity metrics and relative abundances of major bacterial phyla remained stable across storage at 4 °C for up to 96 h, with the greatest compositional change occurring in the first 24 h; inter-individual differences outweighed storage effects, supporting robust decentralised self-collection of stool for microbiome analysis.