2026 · Clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine · paywalled
Sample volume management: the role of the clinical laboratory in minimizing diagnostic blood loss
Šimundić et al.
The finding, in our words
The review highlights that diagnostic blood loss from routine phlebotomy contributes to hospital-acquired anaemia and that microsampling techniques can reduce this risk without compromising analytical quality. This supports the role of decentralised, patient-centric microsampling in improving patient safety and laboratory sustainability.
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.
Guidance on capillary-to-plasma conversion: method- and analyte-specific clinical validation with paired capillary–venous samples before reporting plasma-equivalent results.
Boffel et al., Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (paywalled) · source ↗
This UK consensus opinion outlines how clinical laboratories can validate self-collected capillary blood sampling against venous reference standards to achieve accreditation and facilitate the shift towards community-based patient care.
Woolley et al., Annals of clinical biochemistry (paywalled) · source ↗
Comfort Draw collected adequate capillary blood from the upper arm in 85.5 per cent of attempts for total blood volume and 95.1 per cent for serum volume, with 17 of 19 serum analytes meeting CLIA acceptance criteria against matched venous samples. The procedure scored a mean pain rating of 0.39 out of 10, indicating high patient acceptability, and the device’s simpler design may lower cost for decentralised diagnostics.