2022 · Current opinion in nephrology and hypertension · paywalled
Novel monitoring of renal function and medication levels in saliva and capillary blood of patients with kidney disease
Beshay et al.
The finding, in our words
Noninvasive salivary measurements of creatinine, cystatin C and urea, and fingerstick capillary blood testing, can approximate gold‑standard laboratory results for kidney function. This could enable more frequent, home‑based monitoring to detect CKD progression and AKI episodes without the burdens of conventional venepuncture and laboratory processing.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
The homeRNA capillary blood collection and stabilization platform successfully captured lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammatory gene expression profiles. These transcriptomic responses were comparable to those obtained from traditional venous blood samples stabilized with RNAlater or PAXgene, demonstrating the platform's suitability for remote transcriptomic monitoring.
Self-collected capillary blood samples posted by standard mail showed high concordance with couriered venous samples for HbA1c, creatinine and lipid parameters, supporting their use for remote monitoring in diabetes management and screening.
Plasma lipidomes from self-collected upper-arm capillary blood were statistically indistinguishable from paired venous plasma, most classes at r=0.95–0.99, validating at-home capillary self-collection for lipidomics.
Capillary finger-stick blood showed excellent comparability with venous samples for 30 of 33 routine chemistry analytes against total allowable error criteria, and met CLIA 2024 proficiency testing limits for all but glucose. This validates capillary sampling as a clinically acceptable alternative for most routine tests, benefiting patients with needle phobia and enabling remote sampling.
TAP II capillary serum, both professionally collected and self-collected, correlated with venous serum at R > 0.9 for eight analytes including ALT, AST, cholesterol, HDL and triglycerides. Creatinine correlated acceptably but carried a consistent negative bias, and carbon dioxide, potassium and albumin did not reach acceptable agreement: the useful reading is that the panel has to be validated, not the device alone.