Using an Innovative Method for Self-Collection of Capillary Blood for HIV and Syphilis Testing Among Men Who Have Sex With Men Who Use Pre-exposure Prophylaxis in the Netherlands; Limburg4zero
Goense et al.
The finding, in our words
The Tasso+ device, which uses a vacuum to collect capillary blood from the upper arm, gathered an average of 536 microlitres of whole blood from 47 men who have sex with men using PrEP, with 91% of samples sufficient for HIV testing and 89% for syphilis testing. Acceptability was high, with 87% expressing a positive attitude and 77% willing to use the device again for home self-sampling.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
In a cohort of 62 participants evaluating home self-collection with the TassoPlus device, 38 returned samples, with 29% excluded due to insufficient plasma volume below 200 ΔL. Although viral load measurements in adequate samples correlated well with conventional testing (r = 0.800), the high failure rate and missed detection in low-volume viremic samples indicate that further technical refinements are necessary before clinical adoption.
The First to Know Syphilis Self-Test, using self-collected fingerstick capillary blood, demonstrated 93.4% sensitivity and 99.5% specificity against a composite reference standard in a 1,270-subject study. This over-the-counter test enables patient-centric screening at home, which could improve early detection and reduce transmission of syphilis and associated STIs.
In 30 adult solid organ transplant recipients, capillary blood self-collected using the Tasso+ device showed 91% concordance with venous samples for detecting CMV DNAemia above the limit of detection, with excellent quantitative correlation (Spearman R² = 0.99). Most participants preferred self-collection over venipuncture, suggesting the device could enable decentralised viral monitoring, though sensitivity was lower (95% at 308 IU/mL).
Capillary blood self-sampling achieved 98.3% agreement with venous samples for SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies and 100% for IgA among 60 participants, demonstrating accuracy for vaccine monitoring. Saliva self-collection proved feasible with excellent usability, offering a patient-centric alternative for decentralised immunogenicity assessment.
The Tasso OnDemand device was well accepted by participants, with nearly all finding it easy to use and feeling confident they could self-sample at home, and paired self-collected and clinician-collected specimens showed high agreement for HIV, syphilis and creatinine tests. While most users collected enough serum for two monitoring tests, only a third produced sufficient volume for three tests, suggesting a larger-volume device may be preferable for full guideline-recommended PrEP monitoring.