2026 · The journal of applied laboratory medicine · paywalled
Accessible Prostate-Specific Antigen Testing through Finger-Stick Dried Blood Spots and Routine Laboratory Analyzers
van Vugt et al.
The finding, in our words
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.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
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.
Finger-stick capillary blood spotted onto filter paper and dried (DBS) provides C-reactive protein results that correlate excellently with venous plasma (R² = 0.986). The method correctly classified all 25 high cardiovascular-risk patients and 12 of 13 inflammation cases, with analyte stability demonstrated for 31 days, supporting its use for patient-centric at-home sampling in decentralised diagnostics and screening programmes.
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.
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.
Microsampling enables less invasive, patient-centric self-collection of capillary blood for remote monitoring of metabolites and lipids, overcoming conventional venipuncture constraints. Recent device innovations address dried blood spot limitations, particularly haematocrit and volume variations, expanding decentralised applications in population health, drug discovery and multi-omics research.