ArticlemSphere2019
Rectal Swabs from Critically Ill Patients Provide Discordant Representations of the Gut Microbiome Compared to Stool Samples.
Article in mSphere, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
- Gut Microbiota Alterations Associated With Colonization by Multidrug-Resistant Organisms in ICU Patients: First Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.MicrobiologyOpen · 2026Pooled it
- Difference analysis of intestinal microbiota in patients in the intensive care unit using different sampling methods: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Pooled it
- Impact of co-amoxiclav versus amoxicillin on the gastrointestinal microbiota in sub-Saharan children hospitalized with pneumonia.npj antimicrobials and resistance · 2026Article
- Integrative metagenomic and metabolomic analysis reveals a gut microbiota-metabolite-immune axis in pediatric allergic rhinitis with functional constipation.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Article
- The intestinal mucosa-associated microbiota in IBD-associated arthritis displays lower relative abundance ofGut microbes · 2025Article
- Unravelling the impacts of captivity on saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) cloacal bacterial communities and physiology.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2025Article
- Pondering Ponds: Exploring Correlations Between Cloacal Microbiota and Blood Metabolome in Freshwater Turtles.Microbial ecology · 2025Article
- Functional Outcome Prediction of Acute Ischemic Stroke Based on the Oral and Gut Microbiota.Molecular neurobiology · 2025Observational
- Validation of rectal swabbing for total and aerobic gut microbiota study.Microbiology spectrum · 2025Article
- The healthy human gut can take it all: vancomycin-variable, linezolid-resistant strains and specific bacteriocin-species interplay inApplied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Sampling strategies for digestive system flora studies: current research and perspectives.PeerJ · 2025Review
- Tissue source may affect the esophageal flora in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.Oncology letters · 2025Article
- Longitudinal multicompartment characterization of host-microbiota interactions in patients with acute respiratory failure.Nature communications · 2024Article
- First-Day-of-Life Rectal Swabs Fail To Represent Meconial Microbiota Composition and Underestimate the Presence of Antibiotic Resistance Genes.Microbiology spectrum · 2023Article
- The Gut Microbiome Modulates Body Temperature Both in Sepsis and Health.American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine · 2023Article
- Impact of Intensive Care Unit Nutrition on the Microbiome and Patient Outcomes.Anesthesiology clinics · 2023Review
- Big Data in Gastroenterology Research.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Probiotic supplementation for neonates with congenital gastrointestinal surgical conditions: guidelines for future research.Pediatric research · 2023Review
- The healthy female microbiome across body sites: effect of hormonal contraceptives and the menstrual cycle.Human reproduction (Oxford, England) · 2022Article
- Increasing transparency and reproducibility in stroke-microbiota research: A toolbox for microbiota analysis.iScience · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The role of the gut microbiome in critical illness is being actively investigated, but the optimal sampling methods for sequencing studies of gut microbiota remain unknown. Stool samples are generally considered the reference standard but are not practical to obtain in the intensive care unit (ICU), and thus, rectal swabs are often used. However, the reliability of rectal swabs for gut microbiome profiling has not been established in the ICU setting. In this study, we compared 16S rRNA gene sequencing results between rectal swab and stool samples collected at three time points from mechanically ventilated critically ill adults. Rectal swabs comprised 89% of the samples collected at the baseline time point, but stool samples became more extensively available at later time points. Significant differences in alpha-diversity and beta-diversity between rectal swabs and stool samples were observed, but these differences were primarily due to baseline samples. Higher relative abundances of members of the
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.