Blood self-sampling devices: innovation, interpretation and implementation in total lab automation

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.

Implementation of a Capillary Blood Self-Sampling Technique at Home for Monitoring of Patients With IBD — Schuurman et al., Inflammatory bowel diseases · source ↗

• acceptability
• multimodal
• blood
• rpm
• self-collection
• capillary
• liquid

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.

Feasibility and reliability of decentralized HIV-1 viral load monitoring on self-sampled blood — Mendes de Leon et al., PloS one · source ↗

• blood
• liquid
• capillary
• self-collection
• validation
• venous-agreement
• acceptability
• serology

An evaluation of blood sampling strategies across a large UK healthcare-worker cohort study, covering how sampling approach affected participation.

Evaluating blood sampling strategies within the SIREN study: the experience from a large cohort of healthcare workers in the UK — Hettiarachchi et al., BMC Medical Research Methodology · source ↗

• dct
• acceptability
• blood
• economics
• self-collection
• capillary
• validation

This meta-analysis found strong agreement between self-collected capillary blood and venous samples for laboratory results. Capillary sampling was associated with significantly lower pain scores than venipuncture, particularly when using upper arm devices rather than fingerprick methods.

Comparison of laboratory results and pain perception in self-sampled capillary blood versus venous blood sampling: a systematic review and meta-analysis — Schröder et al., Clinical biochemistry (paywalled) · source ↗

• venous-agreement
• acceptability
• blood
• self-collection
• capillary
• liquid
• validation

Self-collected capillary samples showed good agreement with venous samples for most safety monitoring parameters in patients with rheumatic disease, although platelet counts were less reliable and haemolysis affected some biochemistry results. Patients found the self-sampling process easy and virtually painless, suggesting it is a feasible option for decentralised monitoring.

Self-sampling of capillary blood for safety monitoring of DMARD therapy in patients with rheumatic disease: a feasibility and method-comparison study — Adelhelm et al., Scandinavian journal of clinical and laboratory investigation (paywalled) · source ↗

• venous-agreement
• acceptability
• blood
• self-collection
• capillary
• liquid