The effect of hematocrit on bioanalysis of DBS: results from the EBF DBS-microsampling consortium

The European Bioanalysis Forum dried blood spots (DBS)/microsampling consortium is reporting back from the experiments they performed on further documenting the potential hurdles of the DBS technology. This paper is focused on the impact of hematocrit changes on DBS analyses. The hematocrit can have an effect on the size of the blood spot, on spot homogeneity and on extraction recovery in a compound-dependent manner. The extraction recovery can change upon aging in an hematocrit-dependent way. Different card materials can give different outcomes. The results from the conducted experiments show that the issues of DBS in regulated bioanalysis are real and that the technology will need improvements to be ready for use as a general tool for regulated bioanalysis.