2025 · Diagnostics · open access
Schaff et al.
A vacuum-assisted upper-arm device collected a mean 538 µL and met the volume target in 85.5% of cases; 17 of 19 analytes met CLIA agreement with venous, with pain lower than fingerstick.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
2025
A head-to-head of four upper-arm capillary devices, including TAP Micro Select, versus fingerstick and venous: experience and performance varied by device with none clearly superior, while analyte correlations with venous were similar across all.
Comparing capillary blood collection technologies: patient experience, device performance and clinical accuracy — Collier et al., Bioanalysis (paywalled) · source ↗
2026
Although most kidney transplant recipients successfully collected capillary blood samples at home, haemolysis and transport conditions affected analyte stability. Agreement with venous sampling was acceptable for haemoglobin and creatinine, but potassium and haematocrit exceeded total allowable error limits.
At-home blood collection for clinical chemistry analyses in a kidney transplant population: a feasibility study — Hoekstra et al., Clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine (paywalled) · source ↗
2026
Capillary blood collected with Tasso+ devices demonstrated strong agreement with venous blood for primary Athlete Biological Passport markers (haemoglobin, reticulocytes, OFF-score, ABPS) with correlations ≥0.9, though platelet count showed poor concordance. Despite 44 of 209 samples failing pre-analytical checks mainly due to coagulation, high athlete acceptance and minimal pain support capillary sampling as a less invasive, viable alternative for decentralised anti-doping controls.
Capillary Blood as a Potential New Matrix for the Athlete Biological Passport: A Field-Based Comparison Study — Requena-Tutusaus et al., Medicine and science in sports and exercise (paywalled) · source ↗
2026
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 ↗
2025
A study of decentralised patient-centric microsampling found that 82% of untrained participants, 47 of 57, successfully self-collected acceptable fingerstick blood in Microtainer tubes. All 46 tested samples yielded accurate HIV viral suppression results compared to venipuncture, though this remote monitoring approach is limited to US courier services and temperature conditions.
A cross-sectional analysis of fingerstick blood self-microcollection for remote HIV suppression monitoring in Atlanta, Georgia, USA: a path to expanding access to continuum of care — Johnson et al., AIDS research and therapy · source ↗