The Use of Whole Blood Capillary Samples to Measure 15 Analytes for a Home-collect Biochemistry Service During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: A Proposed Model from North West London Pathology

Overview

Journal Ann Clin Biochem

Specialty Biochemistry

Date 2021 Mar 15

PMID 33715443

Citations 6

Authors

Saleem Ansari

Mariana Abdel-Malek

Julia Kenkre

Sirazum M Choudhury

Sophie Barnes

Shivani Misra

Tricia Tan

Jaimini Cegla

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed the delivery of secondary care services. Self-collection of capillary blood at home can facilitate the monitoring of patients with chronic disease to support virtual clinics while mitigating the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission.

Objective: To investigate the comparability of whole blood capillary and plasma venous samples for 15 routinely used biochemical analytes and to develop and pilot a user-friendly home-collection kit to support virtual outpatient clinical services.

Methods: To investigate the comparability of whole blood capillary and plasma venous samples for 15 routinely requested biochemical analytes, simultaneous samples of venous and capillary blood were collected in EDTA and lithium-heparin plasma separation tubes that were of 4-6 mL and 400-600 L draw volume, respectively. Venous samples were analysed within 4 h of collection while capillary samples were kept at ambient temperature for three days until centrifugation and analysis. Analyte results that were comparable between the matrices were then piloted in a feasibility study in three outpatient clinical services.

Results: HbA1c, lipid profile and liver function tests were considered comparable and piloted in the patient feasibility study. The home-collect kit demonstrated good patient usability.

Conclusion: Home collection of capillary blood could be a clinically-useful tool to deliver virtual care to patients with chronic disease.

Citing Articles

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Capillary blood self-collection for high-throughput proteomics.

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Feasibility of self-organized blood sample collection in adults for study purposes in a primary care setting.

Schroder D, Muller F, Heesen G, Hummers E, Dopfer-Jablonka A, Vahldiek K PLoS One. 2023; 18(5):e0286014.

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