2015 · Evolution, medicine, and public health · open access
Links among inflammation, sexual activity and ovulation: Evolutionary trade-offs and clinical implications
Lorenz et al.
The finding, in our words
In 61 Bolivian women providing dried blood spots and saliva samples across two ovarian cycles, high early-cycle C-reactive protein was associated with anovulation. Sexually active women with ovulatory cycles showed lower inflammation at midcycle but higher inflammation during follicular and luteal phases, indicating that menstrual cycle phase and sexual activity should be considered when interpreting inflammatory markers in premenopausal women.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
In a study of 46 perinatal nicotine users, dried blood spots and saliva were used weekly to measure reproductive hormones, finding that lower postpartum estradiol and greater peripartum declines in oxytocin were associated with increased nicotine craving and use. This demonstrates the feasibility of decentralised microsampling and remote surveys for longitudinal hormone tracking in vulnerable populations.
Allen et al., Drug and alcohol dependence reports (paywalled) · source ↗
A study of 152 women found that HbA1c and reproductive hormone levels from menstrual blood collected via a modified pad highly correlated with venous blood, supporting its use as a decentralised surrogate, though interassay variability was noted.
In 93 healthy women aged 40–73 years, psychosocial factors predicted sexual functioning more strongly than hormone levels measured in saliva and dried blood spots, showing that decentralised microsampling can support hormone–behaviour research in older women without clinic visits.
Mernone et al., Frontiers in psychology · source ↗
A US survey of 3,400 adults aged 62 to 90 collected up to 15 biomeasures at home, including saliva, dried blood spots and urine, with Salivette and Oragene among the devices used, which shows that several patient-centric sampling methods can run together in home-based research.
Jaszczak et al., The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences (paywalled) · source ↗
The analysis indicates that dried blood spots and volumetric absorptive microsampling enable minimally invasive monitoring of prohibited substances, with volumetric absorptive microsampling offering improved quantitative reliability over traditional dried spots.