2022 · BMC musculoskeletal disorders · open access
Remote sampling of biomarkers of inflammation with linked patient generated health data in patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases: an Ecological Momentary Assessment feasibility study
Druce et al.
The finding, in our words
Thirty-eight patients with rheumatic diseases showed high engagement with twice-daily smartphone symptom reporting (95% completion) and remote dried blood spot collection (84% returned samples, all viable for C-reactive protein analysis). Although symptoms varied considerably, clinically meaningful CRP changes were rare, confirming the feasibility of integrating microsampling with patient-generated health data in decentralised rheumatology research.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
In a 20-person proof-of-concept pilot among veterans with HIV, remote self-collection of dried blood spots for phosphatidylethanol monitoring was feasible and acceptable, with high return and analysis rates and positive feedback; a small first step toward decentralised alcohol biomarker monitoring rather than proof of it.
In an adolescent with cerebral palsy undergoing a home-based, remotely supervised sprint-intensity interval training intervention, dried blood spot testing demonstrated a 37.8% reduction in triglycerides and a 15.4% improvement in total cholesterol to HDL ratio. This illustrates how remote microsampling can support decentralized metabolic monitoring in pediatric disability rehabilitation.
The study found reasonable agreement between finger-prick dried blood spot CRP measurements and venous reference assays in 100 rheumatoid arthritis patients, particularly at low to mid-range CRP values, and showed that weekly self-collected DBS CRP monitoring improved flare detection specificity to 72.7% compared with 54.5% for minimal sampling, supporting decentralised microsampling for remote arthritis management.
The study found that although participants preferred patient-centric microsampling devices for home use, the agreement with venous plasma for measuring CRP and cytokines was inconsistent, indicating that further validation is required before these methods replace standard venipuncture.
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.