Monitoring of direct alcohol markers in alcohol use disorder patients during withdrawal treatment and successive rehabilitation
Luginbühl et al.
The finding, in our words
Volumetric capillary dried blood spot sampling for phosphatidylethanol gave results equivalent to venous sampling (95% agreement) while avoiding venipuncture. PEth measured in dried blood spots was more stable than in liquid blood and superior to urinary ethyl glucuronide and ethyl sulfate for detecting relapse, offering a practical tool for compliance monitoring in alcohol use disorder treatment.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
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.
In AML and CLL, 91% of VAMS venetoclax results fell within 20% of plasma after individualised haematocrit correction; in home sampling, 18 of 21 patients self-sampled independently and 76% of returned samples were analysable, which shows home microsampling is workable, though the authors ask for multicentre validation.
Levens et al., Clinical Pharmacokinetics (paywalled) · source ↗
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.
Andreassen et al., Journal of analytical toxicology (paywalled) · source ↗
LC-MS/MS measurement of imatinib and its active metabolite from volumetric dried blood spots collected via HemaXis DB10 and Capitainer B demonstrated analytical precision across hematocrits from 22% to 55% alongside 43-day ambient stability. Clinical evaluation across 52 paired samples showed high agreement with plasma concentrations, verifying both devices as reliable options for decentralised therapeutic drug monitoring.
Orleni et al., Journal of chromatography. B, Analytical technologies in the biomedical and life sciences (paywalled) · source ↗
Volumetric dried blood spots from finger-prick correlated strongly with venous serum lithium concentrations (Pearson’s R=0.95, ratio 0.78) in thirty-nine patients. This patient-centric microsampling method could enable home-based therapeutic drug monitoring for bipolar disorder, improving compliance and safety where venous sampling is impractical.
Wikström et al., Journal of pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis (paywalled) · source ↗