Durability of anti-spike antibodies in infants after maternal COVID-19 vaccination or natural infection
Shook, Edlow et al.
The finding, in our words
The paper records that the TAP II devices used for the infant draws were provided by YourBio Health, and that capillary serum was collected from babies as young as two months: the smallest patients sampled, without a heel prick or a venepuncture.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
In 91 children and adults, capillary C-peptide taken with the TAP device matched venous sampling with 100% sensitivity and specificity for a clinically relevant level, 200 pmol/L or above, with r = 0.996. 63% preferred it to a needle against 7% who preferred the needle, and same-day bruising was 5.5% versus 34.8% after a venous draw.
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.
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.
This study validated a method requiring only 10 microlitres of serum and found high agreement between fingerstick capillary samples and venous serum for monitoring twelve antibiotics. The results suggest capillary serum sampling is a feasible, minimally invasive alternative that avoids the haematocrit effect associated with whole blood microsampling.
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.