1,602 Results Found

The recent thriving development of biobanks and associated high-throughput phenotyping studies requires the elaboration of large-scale approaches for monitoring biological sample quality and compliance with standard protocols. We present a metabolomi...

Lymphocytes are key players in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis and a distinct target of several immunomodulatory treatment strategies. In this study, we aim to evaluate the effect of various pre-analytic conditions on immune cell counts to con...

Discrepant sample processing remains a significant challenge within blood metabolomics research, introducing non-biological variation into the measured metabolome and biasing downstream results. Inconsistency during the pre-analytical phase can influ...

Recently, CEN/TS 17626:2021, the European pre-analytical standard for human specimens intended for microbiome DNA analysis, was published. Although this standard relates to diagnostic procedures for microbiome analysis and is relevant for in vitro di...

Metabolomics can be significantly influenced by a range of pre-analytical factors, such as sample collection, pre-processing, aliquoting, transport, storage and thawing. This therefore shows the crucial need for standardizing the pre-analytical phase...

Liquid biopsy utilizing cell-free DNA (cfDNA) has become an emergent field of study for cancer screening and monitoring. While blood-based liquid biopsy has been investigated extensively, there are advantages to using other body fluids. Using saliva...

Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) are useful biomarkers of hemolysis. Since blood cells are the main origins of circulating miRNAs, we evaluated blood cell-related pre-analytical modification of the miRNA signatures during blood drawing and serum proces...

Metabolomics provides a comprehensive assessment of numerous small molecules in biological samples. As it integrates the effects of exogenous exposures, endogenous metabolism, and genetic variation, metabolomics is well-suited for studies examining m...

Application of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology to routine clinical practice has enabled characterization of personalized cancer genomes to identify patients likely to have a response to targeted therapy. The proper selection of tumor samp...

Serum and plasma are commonly used in metabolomic-epidemiology studies. Their metabolome is susceptible to differences in pre-analytical conditions and the impact of this is unclear. Participant-matched EDTA-plasma and serum samples were collected fr...

Saliva offers many advantages for point-of-care (PoC) diagnostic applications due to non-invasive, easy, and cost-effective methods of collection. However, the complex matrix with its non-Newtonian behavior and high viscosity poses handling challenge...

Millions of blood products are transfused every year; many lives are thus directly concerned by transfusion. The three main labile blood products used in transfusion are erythrocyte concentrates, platelet concentrates and fresh frozen plasma. Each of...

Background: Quantitative urine culture (CFU/mL) remains the reference standard for diagnosing urinary tract infections (UTIs) but is limited by delayed turnaround times and sensitivity to pre-analytic factors. Multiplex PCR panels offer rapid detecti...

In clinical diagnostics and research, blood samples are one of the most frequently used materials. Nevertheless, exploring the chemical composition of human plasma and serum is challenging due to the highly dynamic influence of pre-analytical variati...

In cancer drug discovery, it is important to investigate the genetic determinants of response or resistance to cancer therapy as well as factors that contribute to adverse events in the course of clinical trials. Despite the emergence of new technolo...

Metabolomics studies aiming to find biomarkers frequently make use of historical or multicenter cohorts. These samples often have different pre-analytical conditions that potentially affect metabolite concentrations. We studied the effect of differen...

Liquid biopsies hold great promise for the management of cancer. Reliable liquid biopsy data depend on stable and reproducible pre-analytical protocols that comply with quality measures, irrespective of the sampling and processing site. We establishe...

Excellent pre-analytical stability is an essential precondition for reliable molecular profiling of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in oncological diagnostics. Therefore, in vitro degradation of ctDNA and the additional release of contaminating genomic...

Background: Kappa free light chains (KFLC) are a promising new biomarker to detect neuroinflammation. Still, the impact of pre-analytical effects on KFLC concentrations was not investigated. Methods: KFLC concentrations were measured in serum and cer...

Lipids are biomolecules involved in numerous (patho-)physiological processes and their elucidation in tissue samples is of particular interest. However, tissue analysis goes hand in hand with many challenges and the influence of pre-analytical factor...

D-dimer is a multifaceted biomarker of concomitant activation of coagulation and fibrinolysis, which is routinely used for ruling out pulmonary embolism (PE) and/or deep vein thrombosis (DVT) combined with a clinical pretest probability assessment. T...

RNA-based next-generation sequencing (RNA-seq) represents the gold standard for detecting gene fusion in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Despite this, RNA instability makes the management of tissue samples extremely complex, resulting in a signif...

Background/Objectives: Pre-analytical variation is a major challenge in metabolomics, yet most stability studies have focused on healthy volunteers and have overlooked the impact of disease and medication. To address this gap, we conducted a pilot st...

Circulating miRNAs are ideal diagnostics and prognostics biomarkers in cancer since altered levels of specific miRNAs have been associated to development/progression of several cancers. Physical activity is a recognized preventive strategy against se...

Metabolomics is a powerful technology with broad applications in life science that, like other -omics approaches, requires high-quality samples to achieve reliable results and ensure reproducibility. Therefore, along with quality assurance, methods t...

Background: Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) has become a cornerstone of liquid biopsy applications, offering promise for early disease detection and monitoring. However, its widespread clinical adoption is limited by variability in pre-analytical processing, e...

As end-products of the intersection between the genome and environmental influences, metabolites represent a promising approach to the discovery of novel biomarkers for diseases. However, many potential biomarker candidates identified by metabolomics...

Proinflammatory biomarkers have been increasingly used in epidemiologic and intervention studies over the past decades to evaluate and identify an association of systemic inflammation with cardiovascular diseases. Although there is a strong correlati...

This review article compiles critical pre-analytical factors for sample collection and extraction of eight uncommon or underexplored biological specimens (human breast milk, ocular fluids, sebum, seminal plasma, sweat, hair, saliva, and cerebrospinal...

Background: Wrong blood in tube (WBIT) is a critical pre-analytical error in laboratory medicine in which a blood sample is mislabeled with the wrong patient identity. These errors are often undetected due to the limitations of current detection stra...

Background: MYCN amplification (MNA), segmental chromosomal aberrations (SCA) and ALK activating mutations are biomarkers for risk-group stratification and for targeted therapeutics for neuroblastoma, both of which are currently assessed on tissue bi...

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis, the handling of biological samples from confirmed or suspected SARS-CoV-2-positive individuals demanded the use of inactivation protocols to ensure laboratory operators’ safety. While not standardized, these...

Since its introduction in the early 2000s, liquid-based cytology (LBC) has been increasingly used for gynecologic and non-gynecologic cytology, and its multiple advantages have been widely recognized. The aim of this study was to investigate the use...

Controlling pre-analytical conditions for medical biology tests, particularly during transport, is crucial for complying with the ISO 15189 standard and ensuring high-quality medical services. The use of drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles...

Timely centrifugation of blood for plasma preparation is a key step to ensure high plasma quality for analytics. Delays during preparation can significantly influence readouts of key clinical parameters. However, in a routine clinical environment, a...

Metabolic profiling enables comprehensive characterisation of the small molecules that are part of the biochemical composition of biological fluids. The most widely profiled biofluids include serum and plasma. Additionally synovial fluid provides a d...

Background: Accurate microbiological diagnosis of bone and joint infections (BJIs) is frequently hampered by low bacterial load, biofilm formation, and suboptimal tissue processing. This study evaluated the diagnostic performance of mechanical bead-m...

Introduction: There are numerous confounding variables in the pre-analytical steps in the analysis of gut microbial composition that affect data consistency and reproducibility. This study compared two DNA extraction methods from the same faecal samp...

Biobanks are essential for precision oncology, providing high-quality materials for biomedical research. Liquid biopsy has become a key tool for non-invasive detection of tumor-derived biomarkers, including circulating tumor DNA, proteins, and extrac...

Aim of the study: We evaluated and compared blood gas analysis (EGA) non-conformities (NC) considered operator-dependent performed in Point-Of-Care (POC) analyzer as quality indicators (IQ) of the pre-analytical phase. To this end, four different NC...

Background: Laboratory errors arise at any stage of testing. Detecting these inaccuracies before results are revealed might delay diagnosis and treatment, causing patient distress. Here, we studied the preanalytical errors in a hematology laboratory....

Given the crucial role of mitochondria as the main cellular energy provider and its contribution towards tumor growth, chemoresistance, and cancer cell plasticity, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) could serve as a relevant biomarker. Thus, the profiling of...

Urinary extracellular vesicles (uEV) hold non-invasive RNA biomarkers for genitourinary tract diseases. However, missing knowledge about reference genes and effects of preanalytical choices hinder biomarker studies. We aimed to assess how preanalytic...

Immunohistochemistry (IHC) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and fragment separation by capillary electrophoresis represent the current clinical laboratory standard for the evaluation of microsatellite instability (MSI) status. The importance of re...

Thyroglobulin (Tg) is a reliable marker for detecting recurrence in differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) patients, but frequently occurring Tg antibodies (TgAbs) can hinder accurate measurement. We aimed to develop a preanalytical protocol for precise...

The main tools for clinical diagnostics of Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB) are based on serology, i.e., detection of antibodies in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). In some cases, PCR may be used as a supplement, e.g., on CSF from patients with early LNB. Stand...

In this proof-of-principle study, we systematically studied the potential of Raman spectroscopy for detecting pre-analytical delays in blood serum samples. Spectra from 330 samples from a liver cirrhosis cohort were acquired over the course of eight...

Salivary DNA is widely used for genetic analyses because of its easy collection. However, its extracellular fraction in particular, similar to the extracellular DNA (ecDNA) in plasma, could be a promising biomarker for oral or systemic diseases. In c...

(1) Background: The surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in urban wastewaters allows one to monitor the presence of the virus in a population, including asymptomatic and symptomatic individuals, capturing the real circulation of this pathogen. The aim of t...

The interaction between programmed death-1 receptor PD-1 and its ligands PD-L1 and PD-L2 is involved in self-tolerance, immune escape of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and COVID-19. As blood-based protein markers they bear great potential to improv...