Evaluation of a Volumetric Dried Blood Spot Card Using a Gravimetric Method and a Bioanalytical Method with Capillary Blood from 44 Volunteers
Lenk et al.
The finding, in our words
A microfluidic volumetric dried blood spot card collected a consistent 14.25 μL capillary blood sample with only 3.0% variability and eliminated haematocrit bias across the 26–62% range. Caffeine measurements from volunteer finger-prick samples showed good agreement with pipetted controls, demonstrating that volumetric DBS can overcome haematocrit effects and improve quantitative accuracy for decentralised testing.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
In AML and CLL, 91% of VAMS venetoclax results fell within 20% of plasma after individualised haematocrit correction; in home sampling, 18 of 21 patients self-sampled independently and 76% of returned samples were analysable, which shows home microsampling is workable, though the authors ask for multicentre validation.
Levens et al., Clinical Pharmacokinetics (paywalled) · source ↗
This review found that volumetric microsampling devices, such as Mitra, HemaPEN, HemaXis DB10, and Tasso-M20, overcome haematocrit bias, whilst Telimmune plasma separation cards enable direct plasma collection without centrifugation. These technologies support patient-centric, decentralised sampling, though the authors note that clinical validation remains limited across different drugs and patient populations.
Huhn & Scherf-Clavel, Therapeutic drug monitoring (paywalled) · source ↗
The HematoCARD cartridge autonomously collects duplicate 10 microlitre dried blood spot samples from a single finger prick and shows good analytical performance for monitoring adalimumab, with accuracy between 91 and 111 per cent, linearity R squared 0.99 and coefficient of variation at or above 0.94 compared with serum reference and commercial DBS microsampling methods.
Van Hileghem et al., Analytical chemistry (paywalled) · 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.
Capillary dried blood spots, after haematocrit-dependent conversion, showed good agreement with plasma for 25-hydroxyvitamin D quantification, with 90 per cent of results within 20 per cent of plasma and substantial to almost perfect agreement in status classification, supporting reliable home self-collection for large-scale vitamin D monitoring.
Heughebaert et al., Clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine (paywalled) · source ↗