2023 · Thyroid : official journal of the American Thyroid Association · paywalled
A Preliminary Analysis of Thyrotropin Measurement from Finger Stick Dried Blood Spot with an Automated High-Throughput Immunoassay Analyzer
Schakelaar et al.
The finding, in our words
Capillary finger-stick dried blood spots yielded TSH measurements that agreed strongly with venous plasma (R² 0.988) and correctly identified hypothyroidism and hypothyrotropinemia in most cases. The analyte remained stable for at least four days between -20°C and +30°C, indicating potential for at-home collection in thyroid diagnostics and monitoring.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
This study found that dried blood spot samples stored at room temperature for four years correlated highly with serum measurements for testosterone and androstenedione, indicating that hematocrit adjustment may be unnecessary for serial monitoring in home-based self-sampling.
In AML and CLL, 91% of VAMS venetoclax results fell within 20% of plasma after individualised haematocrit correction; in home sampling, 18 of 21 patients self-sampled independently and 76% of returned samples were analysable, which shows home microsampling is workable, though the authors ask for multicentre validation.
Capillary dried blood spots, after haematocrit-dependent conversion, showed good agreement with plasma for 25-hydroxyvitamin D quantification, with 90 per cent of results within 20 per cent of plasma and substantial to almost perfect agreement in status classification, supporting reliable home self-collection for large-scale vitamin D monitoring.
Capillary finger-stick dried blood spots demonstrated strong analytical agreement with venous serum for prostate-specific antigen (R² = 0.987) and remained stable for 31 days across a wide temperature range. This less invasive microsampling approach enables at-home self-collection, supporting decentralised screening and tele-diagnostics for prostate cancer.
Finger-stick dried blood spots produce creatinine measurements that correlate strongly with venous plasma (R² = 0.97), with 91% sensitivity and 96% specificity for detecting reduced eGFR. Creatinine stays stable in dried spots for up to one month at refrigerated or frozen temperatures, supporting accurate home-based kidney function screening, patient follow-up, and medication management.