Alternative Sampling Devices to Collect Dried Blood Microsamples: State-of-the-Art
Delahaye et al.
The finding, in our words
Delahaye et al reviewed dried-blood microsampling devices for home therapeutic drug monitoring, concluding that while patient willingness and feasibility have been demonstrated, clinical adoption remains limited. They emphasised that more extensive analytical and clinical evaluation is essential to prove real-world utility and enable routine integration.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
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.
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.
Deprez et al. validated LC‑MS/MS methods for four immunosuppressants and creatinine from a single 10 μL quantitative dried blood spot. With biases under 10 % and CVs below 8 %, the approach enables accurate patient‑centric therapeutic drug monitoring from capillary blood at home, mitigating the haematocrit effect through volumetric collection.
Clinical validation for tacrolimus and mycophenolic acid monitoring showed that while volumetric absorptive microsampling met analytical criteria after concentration correction, conventional dried blood spots achieved superior adherence to strict clinical criteria, sample quality, and cost efficiency without significant haematocrit bias.
Volumetric absorptive microsampling with Mitra devices permits minimally invasive, finger-prick blood collection for therapeutic drug monitoring of antiseizure medications without trained staff. The review concluded that stability, accuracy and precision are acceptable for specific drugs and haematocrit effects are minimised, but evidence is drug-specific and further validation is required for decentralised clinical use.