Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Jun 6:9:855250.
doi: 10.3389/fmed.2022.855250. eCollection 2022.

Diagnostic Accuracy of Liquid Biomarkers in Airway Diseases: Toward Point-of-Care Applications

Vivianne Landry  1   2 , Patrick Coburn  2 , Karen Kost  3 , Xinyu Liu  4 , Nicole Y K Li-Jessen  2   3   5   6
Affiliations
Review

Diagnostic Accuracy of Liquid Biomarkers in Airway Diseases: Toward Point-of-Care Applications

Vivianne Landry et al. Front Med (Lausanne). .

Abstract

Background: Liquid biomarkers have shown increasing utility in the clinical management of airway diseases. Salivary and blood samples are particularly amenable to point-of-care (POC) testing due to simple specimen collection and processing. However, very few POC tests have successfully progressed to clinical application due to the uncertainty and unpredictability surrounding their diagnostic accuracy.

Objective: To review liquid biomarkers of airway diseases with well-established diagnostic accuracies and discuss their prospects for future POC applications.

Methodology: A literature review of publications indexed in Medline or Embase was performed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of liquid biomarkers for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR), and COVID-19.

Results: Of 3,628 studies, 71 fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Sputum and blood eosinophils were the most frequently investigated biomarkers for the management of asthma and COPD. Salivary pepsin was the only biomarker with a well-documented accuracy for the diagnosis of LPR. Inflammatory blood biomarkers (e.g., CRP, D-dimers, ferritin) were found to be useful to predict the severity, complications, and mortality related to COVID-19 infection.

Conclusion: Multiple liquid biomarkers have well-established diagnostic accuracies and are thus amenable to POC testing in clinical settings.

Keywords: COVID-19; airway diseases; biomarkers; diagnostic accuracy; point-of-care.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Types of biomarkers.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Liquid biomarkers of airway diseases.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Prisma flow diagram.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Challenges in biomarker discovery, validation, and qualification for clinical translation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Schisterman EF, Albert PS. The biomarker revolution. Stat Med. (2012) 31:2513–5. 10.1002/sim.5499 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. NIH. BEST (Biomarkers, EndpointS, and other Tools) Resource. FDA-NIH Biomarker Working Group. Silver Spring, MD: Food and Drug Administration; (2016). - PubMed
    1. St John A, Price CP. Existing and emerging technologies for point-of-care testing. Clin Biochem Rev. (2014) 35:155–67. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Nijakowski K, Surdacka A. Salivary biomarkers for diagnosis of inflammatory bowel diseases: a systematic review. Int J Mol Sci. (2020) 21:7477. 10.3390/ijms21207477 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kim JJ, Kim CJ, Camargo PM. Salivary biomarkers in the diagnosis of periodontal diseases. J Calif Dent Assoc. (2013) 41:119–24. - PMC - PubMed