Evaluation of oral fluid microsampling as a urine surrogate matrix in substance use disorder care: clinical applicability and analytical performance
Thiebot et al.
The finding, in our words
The study found that oral fluid microsampling using VAMS has high patient acceptability, 90% vs 28% for urine, and over 88% agreement with urine toxicology screening, making it a practical alternative for substance use disorder monitoring with reduced sample adulteration risk and lower costs.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
Confirms urine is the second-most-applied VAMS matrix in forensics, collecting a consistent volume regardless of viscosity and enabling room-temperature storage and shipping.
The study developed and validated an LC-MS/MS method using volumetric absorptive microsampling to quantify cathinone analogues in dried urine, plasma and oral fluid, showing satisfactory linearity, precision, recovery, matrix effects, selectivity and stability, and was applied to real samples from users, offering a reliable decentralised sampling strategy for forensic toxicology and sport drug testing.
A post-mortem case study found that Mitra microsampling devices achieved comparable qualitative toxicological detection to conventional methods across blood, urine, bile, and vitreous humour, successfully identifying methamphetamine, opioids, and alpha-PHP. Whilst limited to a single case, this shows that microsampling is a viable alternative for qualitative screening when sample volumes are restricted.
This review establishes that microsampling across blood, saliva, urine and stool matrices offers validated workflows and regulatory recognition for human biomonitoring comparable to conventional methods. It finds that these decentralised approaches enhance participant acceptability and enable screening in remote or low-resource settings.
This review highlights that microsampling techniques such as dried blood spots and volumetric absorptive microsampling offer superior alternatives to traditional sampling for the mass spectrometry detection of prohibited substances in anti-doping analysis. It provides guidance on selecting appropriate analytical methods and sample pretreatment strategies to ensure sensitive detection and reliable storage conditions.