Hai-Yue Liu, Shi-Yu Zhang, Wan-Ying Yang, Xiao-Fang Su, Yan He, Hong-Wei Zhou, Jin Su
Abstract
Growing evidence suggests that the airway microbiota might be involved in acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD). Understanding this relationship requires examination of a large-scale population for a long duration to accurately monitor changes in the microbiome. This type of longitudinal study requires an appropriate sampling strategy; two options are the collection of sputum or oropharyngeal swabs. Comparative analysis of the changes that occur in these two specimen types has not been previously performed. This observational study was conducted to explore oropharyngeal microbial community dynamics over time and to examine the relationship between oropharyngeal swabs and sputum. A total of 114 samples were collected from four patients suffering from severe AECOPD. Bacterial and fungal communities were evaluated using 16S rRNA and ITS sequencing. Inter-individual differences were found in bacterial community structure, but the core genera were shared by both sample types and included 32 lineages. Most of the core genera were members of the phyla Proteobacteria, Firmicutes and Ascomycota. Although the oropharyngeal samples showed higher bacterial alpha diversity, the two sample types generated rather similar taxonomic profiles. These results suggest that the sputum microbiome is remarkably similar to the oropharyngeal microbiome. Thus, oropharyngeal swabs can potentially be used instead of sputum samples for patients with exacerbation of COPD.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 9. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 11 July 2017.
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#3,770,642
of 22,982,639 outputs
Outputs from Frontiers in Microbiology
#3,591
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#68,026
of 316,706 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Frontiers in Microbiology
#148
of 532 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,982,639 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 83rd percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 25,044 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.3. This one has done well, scoring higher than 85% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 532 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 71% of its contemporaries.
