2026 · Journal of pharmacy & pharmaceutical sciences : a publication of the Canadian Society for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Societe canadienne des sciences pharmaceutiques · open access
Evaluation of hematocrit-adjusted conversion strategies for mycophenolic acid and tacrolimus monitoring using volumetric absorptive microsampling in lung and renal transplant recipients
Juan et al.
The finding, in our words
In lung and renal transplant recipients, VAMS sampling with LC-MS/MS quantification of mycophenolic acid and tacrolimus showed good linearity and accuracy, and with a haematocrit-adjusted conversion formula achieved clinical agreement in most samples; tacrolimus did not require haematocrit correction. The approach is virtually painless and enables richer sampling for more accurate drug exposure estimates, supporting decentralised therapeutic drug monitoring.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
In matched clinical samples from rheumatoid arthritis, VAMS and DBS showed strong agreement for methotrexate polyglutamates (slopes 0.95-1.07; bias within -4.21% to 0.36%; SRCC ≥ 0.969), with up to 100% of total MTXPG results within ±20% limits; capillary microsampling agreed closely with whole blood but differed from red blood cells, indicating matrix-specific differences that must be accounted for when interpreting against RBC-based reference values.
Kocur et al., International journal of molecular sciences · source ↗
A validated LC-MS/MS method for everolimus using Mitra and Capitainer devices found excellent agreement between capillary microsamples and venous whole blood in 33 adult transplant recipients. The results showed high accuracy and negligible haematocrit effects, supporting the use of microsampling for decentralised therapeutic drug monitoring.
The study validated a VAMS-based LC-MS/MS method for measuring sirolimus levels, showing it was clinically equivalent to the standard whole blood method and suitable for therapeutic drug monitoring in paediatric transplant patients, supporting the use of decentralised microsampling for this purpose.
Kocur et al., Pharmacological reports : PR · source ↗
A study of 50 paediatric renal transplant recipients found that a validated VAMS LC-MS/MS method for tacrolimus showed high correlation with the reference method over 0.5–60 ng/mL, with minimal haematocrit effect.
Clinical validation for tacrolimus and mycophenolic acid monitoring showed that while volumetric absorptive microsampling met analytical criteria after concentration correction, conventional dried blood spots achieved superior adherence to strict clinical criteria, sample quality, and cost efficiency without significant haematocrit bias.
Paniagua-González et al., Journal of pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis (paywalled) · source ↗