2025 · Heart & lung : the journal of critical care · paywalled
Inflammation markers associated with symptoms and neighborhood deprivation in black adults with heart failure
Butts et al.
The finding, in our words
In 41 Black adults with heart failure, elevated xanthine oxidase activity from capillary blood collected with Mitra microsampling associated significantly with dyspnoea severity. This demonstrates that microsampling can capture clinically relevant inflammatory biomarkers linked to symptom burden in underserved populations, supporting its use in decentralised cardiovascular monitoring.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
In a nationwide survey of 1047 Belgian adults, at-home VAMS achieved a 63% participation-to-analysis completion rate with 16% of samples excluded due to insufficient quality. While dietary intake suggested adequate thiamine consumption, 11% of participants had blood thiamine diphosphate concentrations below the reference threshold, showing the utility of remote microsampling for identifying true nutritional status.
PEth reference values for Belgium were derived from VAMS microsampling of 487 participants in a national survey, showing distinct biomarker distributions between the general population and higher‑alcohol‑consumption subgroups. This validates capillary blood collection as a practical method for decentralised alcohol monitoring and forensic assessment.
A validated offline SPE-LC-MS/MS method using the Mitra microsampling device successfully quantified tacrolimus, cyclosporine A, tryptophan, kynurenine, and creatinine simultaneously. The method met EMA and FDA criteria, showing agreement between capillary and venous sampling, which could facilitate decentralised therapeutic drug monitoring and transplant follow-up through patient self-collection.
Capillary blood collection using volumetric absorptive microsampling demonstrated equivalent quantification of principal colonic polyphenol metabolites compared with matched venous plasma across a six-hour period following barley biscuit consumption. The technique successfully captured the pharmacokinetic profiles over 48 hours, confirming VAMS as a reliable alternative to venepuncture for dietary biomarker monitoring.
A UHPLC-HRMS assay quantified 25-hydroxyvitamin D2 and D3 from 20 µL Mitra VAMS samples with accuracy under 10% and precision under 11%, LOQ 5 ng/mL: sensitive enough to flag deficiency and simple enough for untrained self-collection, enabling year-round vitamin-D monitoring.