2015 · The International journal on drug policy · paywalled
Liver disease knowledge and acceptability of non-invasive liver fibrosis assessment among people who inject drugs in the drug and alcohol setting: The LiveRLife Study
Marshall et al.
The finding, in our words
People who inject drugs strongly preferred transient elastography for liver fibrosis assessment, with preference increasing from 66% before to 89% after experiencing the procedure. The integration of dried blood spot testing with non-invasive assessment was highly acceptable in this population, indicating potential for decentralised hepatitis C and liver disease screening services.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
In a pilot mixed-methods study of youth with HIV, mailed HemaSpot-HF kits enabled home-based dried blood spot collection that participants found feasible and acceptable, supporting remote viral load monitoring and a self-management model for decentralised care.
Task sharing dried blood spot collection for HIV viral load testing with community lay cadres achieved high diagnostic agreement with healthcare worker collections and was highly acceptable to patients. This approach offers a viable strategy to overcome healthcare worker shortages and support decentralised viral load monitoring in resource-limited settings.
This review establishes that microsampling across blood, saliva, urine and stool matrices offers validated workflows and regulatory recognition for human biomonitoring comparable to conventional methods. It finds that these decentralised approaches enhance participant acceptability and enable screening in remote or low-resource settings.
A study of older rural US patients found that 96 to 98 per cent of self-collected dried blood spot specimens were successfully analysed for HIV viral load, with high acceptability. However, concordance between self-reported and measured viral load was only 69 to 82 per cent, highlighting the value of objective decentralised microsampling over self-reporting.
Among 154 volunteers, 85% found HemaSpot HF self-sampling acceptable, but correlation with venous blood for anti-tetanus toxin IgG was moderate (r = 0.73) and sensitivity varied from 70% to 100% depending on the cut-off value, with concentration differences widening at higher IgG levels. The device requires further improvement before it can reliably replace venous puncture for decentralised serological testing.