2025 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · open access
Clinical evaluation of patterned dried plasma spot cards to support quantification of HIV viral load and reflexive genotyping
Morbioli et al.
The finding, in our words
Patterned dried plasma spot cards matched Roche plasma separation cards for HIV viral load sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and band placement, and outperformed them for reflexive genotyping success and drug resistance mutation detection, supporting decentralised dried plasma collection with improved haematocrit independence and reduced haemolysis.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
The TaqPath kit performed well for HIV drug resistance testing from dried blood spots in samples with high viral loads, meeting WHO criteria for sensitivity and mutation detection, but showed reduced sensitivity at lower viral loads below 5000 copies/mL. This supports the use of DBS for decentralised HIV monitoring in resource-limited settings, though caution is needed when viral load is low.
Okafor et al., Journal of virological methods (paywalled) · source ↗
Plasma separation cards demonstrated 95 percent amplification success and 98.5 percent nucleotide similarity with plasma, with 94.6 percent concordance for major HIV drug-resistance mutations. The cards provide a viable alternative specimen type for resistance testing in remote or resource-limited settings, enabling decentralised surveillance and clinical care.
Pham et al., The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy · source ↗
A 2025 review maps 28 microsampling devices, from dried spots and volumetric absorptive tips to upper-arm liquid capillary collectors, and names what a laboratory must control before their results are used: the haematocrit effect in non-volumetric dried samples, interstitial fluid from finger milking, volume, haemolysis and transport stability. Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic ask for the same two things, a device the patient can use safely and a sample fit for the test.
Microsampling reduces sample volume, invasiveness, logistics and biohazard risk while improving stability and enabling at-home self-sampling, yet clinical adoption remains slow and requires standardisation and harmonisation to realise its patient-centric and decentralised potential.
Thangavelu et al., Analytical science advances · source ↗
The review evaluates microsampling techniques including dried matrix spots, volumetric absorptive microsampling and capillary microsampling for SARS-CoV-2 bioanalytical applications, outlining their respective advantages and disadvantages to guide researchers and clinicians in pandemic-related diagnostics.
Protti et al., Journal of pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis · source ↗