2019 · Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · paywalled
Early Pubertal Timing and Testosterone Associated With Higher Levels of Adolescent Depression in Girls
Copeland et al.
The finding, in our words
In a longitudinal cohort of adolescent girls, sex steroids measured from dried blood spots showed that higher testosterone levels and early pubertal timing were significant predictors of increased depression risk, whereas estradiol, age, and pubertal status alone were not independently predictive.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
In a study of 46 perinatal nicotine users, dried blood spots and saliva were used weekly to measure reproductive hormones, finding that lower postpartum estradiol and greater peripartum declines in oxytocin were associated with increased nicotine craving and use. This demonstrates the feasibility of decentralised microsampling and remote surveys for longitudinal hormone tracking in vulnerable populations.
Allen et al., Drug and alcohol dependence reports (paywalled) · source ↗
Among 8007 neonates screened using dried blood spots, the study identified prevalence rates for congenital hypothyroidism (1:2002), congenital adrenal hyperplasia (1:2002) and G6PD deficiency (1:900), with abnormal results confirmed by venous sampling. This demonstrates the practical utility of microsampling for decentralised newborn screening and subsequent clinical management.
Narawade et al., Indian journal of clinical biochemistry : IJCB (paywalled) · source ↗
Analysis of dried blood spots from 813 newborns demonstrated that extremely preterm infants have markedly elevated corticosterone and 17-hydroxyprogesterone, with the latter showing the strongest inverse correlation with gestational age, indicating these precursors better reflect adrenal immaturity than cortisol alone. This validates DBS as a practical tool for guiding postnatal steroid therapy in preterm infants by helping clinicians distinguish physiological adrenal immaturity from true insufficiency.
Home DBS sampling gave testosterone results that agreed well with venous blood in men on intramuscular testosterone undecanoate, but showed falsely high values in those using topical gel, likely from skin contamination. Patients preferred home collection for its convenience, suggesting DBS is viable for decentralised monitoring of injectable testosterone if patients are taught proper technique.
Olthof et al., Clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine (paywalled) · source ↗
Capillary dried blood spots yielded reference ranges for testosterone, androstenedione, 17α hydroxyprogesterone and progesterone in healthy premenopausal women, with lower concentrations in users of systemic hormonal contraceptives and cycle-related variation for 17OHP and P4. These ranges enable screening for disorders of sex development using less invasive microsampling.
Wang et al., The Journal of steroid biochemistry and molecular biology (paywalled) · source ↗