From urine to serum: blood-based matrices reshape the future of anti-doping testing
Langer et al.
The finding, in our words
Blood-based matrices such as serum and dried blood spots offer direct access to circulating analytes, overcoming key detection limitations of traditional urine testing for agents like erythropoiesis-stimulating drugs and peptide hormones. Capillary microsampling technologies provide simplified collection workflows that support the expansion of multi-matrix anti-doping and biological passport programmes.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
The authors found that a single microdose of recombinant EPO was detectable up to 72 hours using ITP and CP methods, though the Tasso microsampling device showed lower sensitivity than Mitra and Capitainer. Additionally, isotope ratio mass spectrometry successfully detected testosterone micro-dosing in all analysed samples, supported by serum testosterone levels.
Heiland et al., Drug testing and analysis · 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.
The analysis indicates that dried blood spots and volumetric absorptive microsampling enable minimally invasive monitoring of prohibited substances, with volumetric absorptive microsampling offering improved quantitative reliability over traditional dried spots.
ALAS2 and CA1 mRNA were reliably quantified from venous-cellulose, capillary-cellulose and Tasso-M20 dried blood spots with strong linear agreement (r ≥ 0.96) and no bias for ALAS2. CA1 showed modest proportional bias of 9-22% only when Tasso-M20 was compared with cellulose cards in the rEPO cohort, but no significant differences in relative expression across matrices were observed at any timepoint. These findings support decentralised capillary sampling for longitudinal anti-doping monitoring.
Bejder et al., Drug testing and analysis · source ↗
Dried blood spot sampling detected testosterone use in all ten participants, whereas urine testing missed two cases likely due to UGT2B17 deletion. The method distinguished prescribed from illicit testosterone ester use, supporting DBS as a sensitive tool for decentralised anabolic steroid monitoring.
Suominen et al., Drug testing and analysis · source ↗