Feasibility and Validity of In-Home Self-Collected Capillary Blood Spot Screening for Type 1 Diabetes Risk
Sing et al.
The finding, in our words
Self-collected dried blood spots showed high specificity and acceptable sensitivity for detecting islet antibodies compared to serum samples, and participants preferred this method over venous blood draw for its ease and reduced pain.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
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.
Dried blood spot sampling matched venous serum performance for islet autoantibody detection and was considered minimally invasive and convenient by parents and stakeholders, supporting its use for decentralised screening in home or community settings.
Older adults achieved 98% adherence when self-collecting dried blood spots at home for inflammatory markers, with 97% of samples yielding valid results. Test-retest reliability was good (ICCs 0.70–0.76) and correlation with venous blood was strong (r=0.60–0.99), demonstrating that remote capillary sampling is a feasible and valid method for decentralised assessment of inflammation in older adults.
VAMS microsampling found no significant difference from venous blood for tacrolimus in paediatric patients; samples were stable for 14 days, with average difference between paired at-home samples of 0.12 ± 0.94 ng/mL.
Capillary blood collected in microtubes yielded HbA1c results that agreed closely with venous sampling, while dried blood spots showed markedly poorer agreement. High patient acceptability and willingness to repeat suggest microtubes are a viable option for decentralised diabetes monitoring.