Utility of Urine Samples for Biomarker Collection in Pediatric Studies

Written by Kaylee Schnur, David Hutto, Maitreyi Narayan, Nico Osier, & Karin Reuter-Rice 

doi: https://doi.org/10.13178/jnparr

Abstract

 Background: Biobanks are critical tools for advancing scientific knowledge. Barriers to col-lecting biological samples exist for all clinical populations but remain especially understudied in pediatric patients. Literature focused on the ability to biobank blood and urine specimens in children is underexplored.

Objective: This retrospective study is an exploratory, secondary analysis of a longitudinal par-ent study to evaluate the availability of serial blood and urine samples for biobanking, when collected as part of standard of care.

Methods: Children admitted to a university-affiliated hospital for traumatic brain injury were enrolled into a parent study (N = 60), which collected serial biologic samples. The analysis in-cluded 37 children, of which 75.7% (n = 28) were Caucasian, the majority were male 59.5% (n = 22), and 94.6% (n = 35) were diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury. Participant injury characteristics and clinical data were abstracted from electronic health records, and statistics were generated to explore differences in biospecimen availability by type.

Results: On day 1, urine samples were available 2.46 times more often than blood samples. By day 5, 13.5% of participants were still providing urine when compared to only 2.7% for blood. Over the five-day period 18.9% switched from providing both blood and urine samples to providing urine only.

Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that urine is more readily available than blood as a biospecimen when collected in children for biomarker analysis. Future studies should evaluate the utility of urine biomarkers for diagnostic and prognostic purposes. 

Keywords: biospecimen; biomarker; urine; blood; pediatrics