Methodological considerations for large-scale breath analysis studies : lessons from the U-BIOPRED severe asthma project

Ahmed, Waqar M and Brinkman, Paul and Weda, Hans and Knobel, Hugo H and Xu, Yun and Nijsen, Tamara M and Goodacre, Roy and Rattray, Nicholas and Vink, Teunis J and Santonico, Marco and Pennazza, Giorgio and Montuschi, Paulo and Sterk, Peter J and Fowler, Stephen J (2018) Methodological considerations for large-scale breath analysis studies : lessons from the U-BIOPRED severe asthma project. Journal of Breath Research, 13 (1). ISSN 1752-7163

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Abstract

Methods for breath sampling and analysis require robust quality assessment to minimise the risk of false discoveries. Planning large-scale multi-site breath metabolite profiling studies also requires careful consideration of systematic and random variation as a result of sampling and analysis techniques. In this study we use breath sample data from the recent U-BIOPRED cohort to evaluate and discuss some important methodological considerations such as batch variation and correction, variation between sites, storage and transportation, as well as inter-instrument analytical differences. Based on this we provide a summary of recommended best practices for new large scale multi-site studies.