2022 · Practical laboratory medicine · open access
Feasibility of home-based ELISA capillary blood self-testing for anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies
Baggio et al.
The finding, in our words
Capillary blood self-testing using the Hem-Col device demonstrated excellent correlation (r=0.992) and perfect agreement (kappa=1) with venous blood for anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Feasibility was markedly lower in participants aged 65 or more, who successfully collected the recommended volume in 62.5% of cases versus 86.2% in younger adults, suggesting older people need additional support such as telephone guidance or assistance from family for home-based sampling to be reliable.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
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.
In 30 adult solid organ transplant recipients, capillary blood self-collected using the Tasso+ device showed 91% concordance with venous samples for detecting CMV DNAemia above the limit of detection, with excellent quantitative correlation (Spearman R² = 0.99). Most participants preferred self-collection over venipuncture, suggesting the device could enable decentralised viral monitoring, though sensitivity was lower (95% at 308 IU/mL).
Capillary blood self-sampling achieved 98.3% agreement with venous samples for SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies and 100% for IgA among 60 participants, demonstrating accuracy for vaccine monitoring. Saliva self-collection proved feasible with excellent usability, offering a patient-centric alternative for decentralised immunogenicity assessment.
The Tasso OnDemand device was well accepted by participants, with nearly all finding it easy to use and feeling confident they could self-sample at home, and paired self-collected and clinician-collected specimens showed high agreement for HIV, syphilis and creatinine tests. While most users collected enough serum for two monitoring tests, only a third produced sufficient volume for three tests, suggesting a larger-volume device may be preferable for full guideline-recommended PrEP monitoring.
Capillary blood samples collected by staff or self-collected by participants showed strong correlation and clinically acceptable agreement with venipuncture for influenza haemagglutination inhibition titers. The small differences observed were not clinically meaningful, and adequate sample volume was achieved in most attempts, supporting the feasibility of decentralised serological testing.