Application of micro capillary blood sampling in an anti-doping setting
Lewis et al.
The finding, in our words
Fifty-eight matched capillary and venous blood samples collected under official doping control conditions demonstrated excellent laboratory agreement for complete blood count parameters (except platelets) after temperature-monitored air shipment. This validates micro capillary collection as a virtually painless, athlete-friendly alternative to venipuncture for the Athlete Biological Passport, supporting its use in decentralised diagnostics.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
Capillary blood collected with Tasso+ devices demonstrated strong agreement with venous blood for primary Athlete Biological Passport markers (haemoglobin, reticulocytes, OFF-score, ABPS) with correlations ≥0.9, though platelet count showed poor concordance. Despite 44 of 209 samples failing pre-analytical checks mainly due to coagulation, high athlete acceptance and minimal pain support capillary sampling as a less invasive, viable alternative for decentralised anti-doping controls.
Requena-Tutusaus et al., Medicine and science in sports and exercise (paywalled) · source ↗
ALAS2 and CA1 mRNA were reliably quantified from venous-cellulose, capillary-cellulose and Tasso-M20 dried blood spots with strong linear agreement (r ≥ 0.96) and no bias for ALAS2. CA1 showed modest proportional bias of 9-22% only when Tasso-M20 was compared with cellulose cards in the rEPO cohort, but no significant differences in relative expression across matrices were observed at any timepoint. These findings support decentralised capillary sampling for longitudinal anti-doping monitoring.
Bejder et al., Drug testing and analysis · source ↗
Erythropoietin was unstable in urine stored at room temperature or 37 degrees, with degradation in eight of twelve participants, while serum samples showed greater stability. Recombinant EPO detectability was identical across urine, venous serum and capillary serum collected with the Tasso+ SST device, leading the authors to recommend capillary serum collection for doping control to improve overall detection of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents.
Miller et al., Drug testing and analysis (paywalled) · source ↗
Capillary whole blood collected with RedDrop and Tasso+ devices showed excellent laboratory agreement with venous blood for complete blood count parameters except platelets, indicating that microcapillary sampling is a valid alternative to venepuncture for anti-doping athlete biological passport testing.
Lewis et al., Drug testing and analysis (paywalled) · source ↗
Capillary blood collected with a Tasso+ device showed excellent agreement with venous serum for testosterone, the testosterone/androstenedione ratio, and luteinising hormone in 20 adults tracked over six weeks. The biomarkers remained stable when capillary samples were stored at room temperature, suggesting capillary microsampling could enable decentralised, patient-centric collection for the Athlete Biological Passport without cold-chain logistics.
Goodrum et al., Drug testing and analysis (paywalled) · source ↗