The standardisation of sample collection and processing method is a step in the right direction in enabling saliva to be studied as a sample of choice for diagnostic purposes where final goal would be to advance the translation of salivary research from a laboratory setting to the bed side of a patient.
Standardisation of sampling is thereby of great importance to obtain robust data.
However, there is still a need for standardisation of sample collection, transportation, storage and analysis.
The inconsistency between publications has been widely debated, but it has been well documented that the preanalytical preparation of cell-free DNA samples is crucial [ 24] and highlights the necessity for standardisation of sample preparation if findings across studies are to be comparable.
In conjunction with these efforts, standardisation of tissue sample acquisition, storage and analysis are imperative to enhance reproducibility and enable generalisability (Di Napoli and Signoretti, 2009).
In this study we investigated collection-related methodological factors in an attempt to improve the standardisation of the sampling technique for electronic nose studies.
There are, however, significant uncertainties about the nature of these associations and there is a need for standardisation of the sample collection, transportation, storage and analysis methods before the technique can be considered mainstream.
The design used in this study has certain limitations due to the lack of standardisation of the sample selection and microbiological procedures used for isolation, but we believe that this heterogeneity had only a minor effect on the results.
Furthermore, the standardisation of questionnaires and sampling methods enables comparisons over time.
Morphometric image analysis has the potential to aid standardisation of interpretation of histopathology samples, extending to the postsurgical development of carcinomas (Eynard et al., 2009).
