Development and evaluation of dried blood spot quality control materials in newborn screening for inborn errors of metabolism
Yi & Yang
The finding, in our words
The authors developed matrix-matched dried blood spot quality control materials for newborn screening of inborn errors of metabolism and showed acceptable recovery, homogeneity and short-term stability at 4 °C, enabling laboratories to monitor analytical performance and improve proficiency in decentralised screening programmes.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
This review of 2022 to 2023 work surveys dried blood microsampling for targeted and untargeted metabolomic and lipidomic profiling, finding the approach viable across paediatric research, therapeutic drug monitoring, metabolite screening, biomarker discovery, sports supervision, clinical disorder studies and forensic toxicology. The authors note that dried blood spots and VAMS dominate the published literature over other volumetric formats, and argue that harmonising analytical methods would accelerate wider clinical adoption of microsampling as an alternative to conventional plasma or serum profiling.
Couacault et al., Analytical science advances · source ↗
Volumetric absorptive microsampling showed better precision than dried blood spots and a metabolic profile closer to whole blood, with stable signalling lipids for 24 hours at room temperature but significant changes after one week unless stabilised, indicating feasibility for decentralised sampling with the need for storage strategies.
Thangavelu et al., Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry · source ↗
This review establishes that microsampling across blood, saliva, urine and stool matrices offers validated workflows and regulatory recognition for human biomonitoring comparable to conventional methods. It finds that these decentralised approaches enhance participant acceptability and enable screening in remote or low-resource settings.
The authors developed and optimised a dual LC-MS workflow for non-targeted metabolomics from blood microsamples, comprising a 15-minute HILIC-MS method for polar metabolites and an RPLC-MS method for mid- to non-polar compounds. A 20% water/80% methanol extraction with rehydration offered a practical compromise that detected numerous metabolite features across amino acid, acylcarnitine and bile acid pathways, enabling decentralised metabolomic analysis.
Couacault & Witting, Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society · source ↗
The study validated an LC-MS/MS method for eight antiepileptic drugs and two metabolites in dried blood spot and VAMS formats, with satisfactory analytical performance and stability, and was the first to include the oxcarbazepine metabolite DHCB. In 80 paired patient samples, microsampling concentrations showed promising correlation with plasma, supporting decentralised therapeutic drug monitoring of antiepileptic treatment.
Cobo-Golpe et al., Journal of analytical toxicology · source ↗