Assessing VirScan serosurvey epitope profiling variability between in-clinic venous blood draw and capillary blood self-sampling device
Sircy et al.
The finding, in our words
This study found strong concordance between capillary samples collected via the Tasso device and standard venous draws for VirScan serology, indicating that self-collected samples are a practical alternative for decentralised research. The authors advise against interchanging these collection methods within a single longitudinal study to avoid introducing technical variability.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
Capillary blood samples collected by staff or self-collected by participants showed strong correlation and clinically acceptable agreement with venipuncture for influenza haemagglutination inhibition titers. The small differences observed were not clinically meaningful, and adequate sample volume was achieved in most attempts, supporting the feasibility of decentralised serological testing.
In a cohort of 62 participants evaluating home self-collection with the TassoPlus device, 38 returned samples, with 29% excluded due to insufficient plasma volume below 200 ΔL. Although viral load measurements in adequate samples correlated well with conventional testing (r = 0.800), the high failure rate and missed detection in low-volume viremic samples indicate that further technical refinements are necessary before clinical adoption.
This pilot study found that while initial household enrolment was low at 9%, remote follow-up was highly feasible, with 88% of respondents, 151 of 172, successfully returning self-collected capillary blood samples after 12 months. This shows that decentralised microsampling is viable for household cohorts when face-to-face contact is restricted.
A study of decentralised patient-centric microsampling found that 82% of untrained participants, 47 of 57, successfully self-collected acceptable fingerstick blood in Microtainer tubes. All 46 tested samples yielded accurate HIV viral suppression results compared to venipuncture, though this remote monitoring approach is limited to US courier services and temperature conditions.
In 30 adult solid organ transplant recipients, capillary blood self-collected using the Tasso+ device showed 91% concordance with venous samples for detecting CMV DNAemia above the limit of detection, with excellent quantitative correlation (Spearman R² = 0.99). Most participants preferred self-collection over venipuncture, suggesting the device could enable decentralised viral monitoring, though sensitivity was lower (95% at 308 IU/mL).