Acceptability of capillary point-of-care testing: a systematic review
Dunnett et al.
The finding, in our words
Finger-prick capillary sampling is generally acceptable to patients and clinicians, perceived as less distressing and more convenient than venous draw. It enhances patient-clinician engagement and streamlines workflow, though concerns about training, reliability and quality assurance must be addressed.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
At-home volumetric absorptive microsampling (VAMS) for anti-seizure medicines was feasible and reliable, with strong correlations to clinic VAMS and low bias for lacosamide, lamotrigine and levetiracetam; quantitative dried blood spot (qDBS) was a reliable alternative in the ambulatory setting, though older age reduced sampling quality.
Cancellerini et al., Epilepsia (paywalled) · source ↗
This review found that volumetric microsampling devices, such as Mitra, HemaPEN, HemaXis DB10, and Tasso-M20, overcome haematocrit bias, whilst Telimmune plasma separation cards enable direct plasma collection without centrifugation. These technologies support patient-centric, decentralised sampling, though the authors note that clinical validation remains limited across different drugs and patient populations.
Huhn & Scherf-Clavel, Therapeutic drug monitoring (paywalled) · source ↗
This proof-of-concept study demonstrated that patients with inflammatory bowel disease could successfully perform capillary blood microsampling at home with high analytical success rates, and a majority preferred this decentralised approach over hospital venous draws.
Schuurman et al., Inflammatory bowel diseases · source ↗
The study found that quantitative dried blood spot sampling provided high clinical agreement for tacrolimus and creatinine monitoring, with patients rating the self-collection devices as user-friendly. These results support the feasibility of decentralised therapeutic drug monitoring for immunosuppressants.
De Baets et al., Clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine (paywalled) · source ↗
Volumetric microsampling can enable patient-centred therapeutic drug monitoring with high patient preference and acceptable method validation for many drugs, but conversion from capillary to plasma and agreement with venous sampling varies by analyte and requires careful validation.
Tummala et al., Journal of clinical pharmacology (paywalled) · source ↗