Effect of sampling paper on dried blood spots specimen collection

Abstract

Dried blood spots (DBS) as a sampling technique has been in use for a long time. It is now increasingly common in preclinical and clinical sample collection especially the studies involving antimalarial drugs. In the beginning, its purpose was to screen newborn for phenylketonuria. For antimalarial drugs, it is a simple collection technique, particularly useful in rural areas where resources are limited for sampling, storage and shipping of venous samples. However, there are several factors to be considered when using the DBS technique and this poster will describe some of those and what impact it may have on the final analysis of drug levels in those blood spots. Five different type of filter paper (31ET Chr, FTA DMPK-C, 903 Protein, Ahlstrom 226 and 3MM Chr) were evaluate on paper properties, blood absorption properties and blood spot distribution, hematocrit and price. The impact on measurement of drug analysis including influence on storage conditions and drying conditions on DBS sample was investigated.