Public and Patient Involvement in research is becoming a requirement on most research funding applications; this includes both healthcare and lab-based research. Whilst case studies and practical ...guides have been developed and are well documented for PPI in healthcare research, there is very little guidance available for PPI in lab-based research. In this piece we discuss our experience of how we have successfully involved patients in our translational cancer research, which is focused on developing personalised treatment for high-grade serous ovarian cancer. We discuss the benefits it has made to both our research and to us as researchers. The patients involved write about their experience, what they enjoyed, and the benefits they felt. Although PPI is quite topical and is being widely discussed, there is hesitancy among researchers, especially those in lab-based research about getting started because of a lack of practical guidance about how to implement it. Here, we have shared our experience, hopefully providing a practical example of how PPI can be incorporated into a lab-based research project.
Background
The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical performance of the Cobas 4800 HPV test and the Aptima HPV assay for the detection of CIN2+ disease in women referred to colposcopy with ...minor cytological abnormalities.
Methods
ThinPrep liquid‐based cytology samples were collected from 562 women referred to colposcopy with minor cytological abnormalities. HPV testing by both assays was performed on these samples. Clinical performances for detection of histologically diagnosed CIN2+ and CIN3+ were calculated.
Results
HPV prevalence by the Cobas 4800 HPV test was 58.2% and 53.0% women tested positive with the Aptima HPV assay in the entire study population. The Aptima HPV assay and the Cobas 4800 HPV test displayed equivalent sensitivity of 90.2% (95%CI, 83.4‐94.9) for the detection of CIN2+ disease. However, the Aptima HPV assay displayed greater specificity of 61.0% (95% CI, 54.0‐68.0) when compared to the Cobas 4800 HPV test 53.0% (95% CI, 46.0‐60.0), and this was significantly higher (P = .0004). The Aptima HPV assay also displayed higher specificity 76.5% (95% CI, 66.0‐85.0) in the ASCUS category in comparison to the Cobas 4800 HPV test 65.0% (95% 54.0‐75.0) which was statistically significant (P = .004).
Conclusions
Both the tests displayed similar sensitivity. However, the Aptima HPV assay was significantly more specific in the identification of women with CIN2+ disease in a colposcopy referral population.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
•Full-Spectrum HPV test and HC2 had similarly high sensitivity for detection of HPV in women with CIN2+.•Molecular Beacon Real-Time HPV assay had the highest positive predictive value for CIN2+.•The ...most common HPV genotypes in this Irish colposcopy clinic were HPV16, 31, 33, 58, 18, 45, 59, 51, 56 and 39.•Multiple HPV infections were detected in 57.7% of colposcopy smears.
Cervical screening programmes are moving towards HPV testing as part of the screening process and as a triage for colposcopy. Three HPV detection methods were evaluated using cervical cytology specimens from colposcopy patients. PreservCyt™ liquid based cytology specimens from 241 women attending colposcopy clinics with greater than 2 persistently abnormal smears were recruited through the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital, Dublin. HPV DNA was detected by Hybrid Capture (HC2) for 13 high-risk HPV types, Full-Spectrum HPV (FS-HPV) for 49 high and low-risk types and Molecular Beacon Real-Time HPV assay (MBRT-HPV) for 16 high and low-risk types. HPV genotyping was performed using Linear Array HPV Assay (LA-HPV). HPV was detected in 83.3% (195/234), 91.9% (217/236) and 80.1% (169/211) of cytology specimens by HC2, FS-HPV and MBRT-HPV, HPV DNA detection assays. The sensitivity of the assays for the detection of high-risk HPV in cytology specimens that had a Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia Grade 2+ result by histology were, 98%, 97% and 94% for HC2, FS-HPV and MBRT-HPV assays with positive predictive values of 94.1%, 94.1% and 97.3%. The most common HPV genotypes were HPV 16, 31, 33, 58, 42, 61 and 53, and the most common high-risk HPV genotypes were HPV 16, 31, 33, 58, 18, 45, 59, 51, 56 and 39, with detection of multiple infections in 57.7% of all cases. FS-HPV and MBRT-HPV are highly sensitive and have a similarly high PPV as the HC2 assay for detection of HPV in patients with Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia Grade 2+ disease. HPV genotyping of women with persistent abnormalities is warranted prior to the introduction of HPV DNA testing in a colposcopy setting.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Human-associated microbial communities include fungi, but we understand little about which fungal species are present, their relative and absolute abundances, and how antimicrobial therapy impacts ...fungal communities. The disease cystic fibrosis (CF) often involves chronic airway colonization by bacteria and fungi, and these infections cause irreversible lung damage. Fungi are detected more frequently in CF sputum samples upon initiation of antimicrobial therapy, and several studies have implicated the detection of fungi in sputum with worse outcomes. Thus, a more complete understanding of fungi in CF is required.
We characterized the fungi and bacteria in expectorated sputa from six CF subjects. Samples were collected upon admission for systemic antibacterial therapy and upon the completion of treatment and analyzed using a pyrosequencing-based analysis of fungal internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) and bacterial 16S rDNA sequences. A mixture of Candida species and Malassezia dominated the mycobiome in all samples (74%-99% of fungal reads). There was not a striking trend correlating fungal and bacterial richness, and richness showed a decline after antibiotic therapy particularly for the bacteria. The fungal communities within a sputum sample resembled other samples from that subject despite the aggressive antibacterial therapy. Quantitative PCR analysis of fungal 18S rDNA sequences to assess fungal burden showed variation in fungal density in sputum before and after antibacterial therapy but no consistent directional trend. Analysis of Candida ITS1 sequences amplified from sputum or pure culture-derived genomic DNA from individual Candida species found little (<0.5%) or no variation in ITS1 sequences within or between strains, thereby validating this locus for the purpose of Candida species identification. We also report the enhancement of the publically available Visualization and Analysis of Microbial Population Structures (VAMPS) tool for the analysis of fungal communities in clinical samples.
Fungi are present in CF respiratory sputum. In CF, the use of intravenous antibiotic therapy often does not profoundly impact bacterial community structure, and we observed a similar stability in fungal species composition. Further studies are required to predict the effects of antibacterials on fungal burden in CF and fungal community stability in non-CF populations.
Short Book Reviews (Book Review) Hummel, Ralph P; Caiden, Naomi; Rubin, Irene S ...
Public Administration Review,
07/1990, Volume:
50, Issue:
4
Book Review
Peer reviewed
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BFBNIB, CEKLJ, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, PRFLJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK