How microsampling is impacting pharmacokinetic and toxicokinetic studies: volumetric absorptive microsampling (VAMS)
Protti et al.
The finding, in our words
This review summarises how volumetric absorptive microsampling facilitates self-sampling and improves stability for pharmacokinetic and toxicokinetic studies while maintaining performance comparable to standard venous blood draws.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
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.
VAMS gave near‑quantitative recovery for cadmium and lead in human blood and correlated strongly with venous sampling, with pre‑cleaning improving correlation and lowering background lead, supporting its use for decentralised biomonitoring of these toxic elements.
A validated two-step LC-MS/MS protocol can identify 91 prohibited doping agents from a single dried blood spot collected on either cellulose cards or volumetric absorptive microsampling devices. This demonstrates robust multi-analyte screening from capillary blood, supporting decentralised anti-doping programmes where venous sampling is impractical.
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.
This study validated a method for measuring the alcohol biomarker phosphatidylethanol using two volumetric absorptive microsampling devices, finding that the Mitra device met all validation criteria and agreed with venous sampling. The Capitainer device was deemed suitable but showed reduced accuracy at higher concentrations, with a small proportional negative bias compared to venous results.