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Contamination of dried blood spots – an underestimated risk in newborn screening

  • Theresa Winter EMAIL logo , Anja Lange , Anke Hannemann , Matthias Nauck and Cornelia Müller
Published/Copyright: August 1, 2017
Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM)
From the journal Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM) Volume 56 Issue 2

Abstract

Background:

Newborn screening (NBS) is an established screening procedure in many countries worldwide, aiming at the early detection of inborn errors of metabolism. For decades, dried blood spots have been the standard specimen for NBS. The procedure of blood collection is well described and standardized and includes many critical pre-analytical steps. We examined the impact of contamination of some anticipated common substances on NBS results obtained from dry spot samples. This possible pre-analytical source of uncertainty has been poorly examined in the past.

Methods:

Capillary blood was obtained from 15 adult volunteers and applied to 10 screening filter papers per volunteer. Nine filter papers were contaminated without visible trace. The contaminants were baby diaper rash cream, baby wet wipes, disinfectant, liquid infant formula, liquid infant formula hypoallergenic (HA), ultrasonic gel, breast milk, feces, and urine. The differences between control and contaminated samples were evaluated for 45 NBS quantities. We estimated if the contaminations might lead to false-positive NBS results.

Results:

Eight of nine investigated contaminants significantly altered NBS analyte concentrations and potentially caused false-positive screening outcomes. A contamination with feces was most influential, affecting 24 of 45 tested analytes followed by liquid infant formula (HA) and urine, affecting 19 and 13 of 45 analytes, respectively.

Conclusions:

A contamination of filter paper samples can have a substantial effect on the NBS results. Our results underline the importance of good pre-analytical training to make the staff aware of the threat and ensure reliable screening results.

Keywords: contamination; dried blood spots; filter paper; newborn screening
Corresponding author: Dr. rer. nat Theresa Winter, Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Ferdinand-Sauerbruch-Strasse, 17475 Greifswald, Germany, Phone: +49 3834 865541

  1. Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: None declared.

  3. Employment or leadership: None declared.

  4. Honorarium: None declared.

  5. Competing interests: The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.

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Supplemental Material:

The online version of this article offers supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2017-0270).

Received: 2017-03-28
Accepted: 2017-07-03
Published Online: 2017-08-01
Published in Print: 2018-01-26

©2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2017-0270
Keywords for this article
contamination; dried blood spots; filter paper; newborn screening

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorial
  3. Need for better PTH assays for clinical research and patient treatment
  4. Reviews
  5. Liquid biopsy in ovarian cancer: recent advances on circulating tumor cells and circulating tumor DNA
  6. Hair testing of GHB: an everlasting issue in forensic toxicology
  7. Opinion Paper
  8. The use of error and uncertainty methods in the medical laboratory
  9. Genetics and Molecular Diagnostics
  10. Results of the first external quality assessment scheme (EQA) for isolation and analysis of circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA)
  11. The importance of biochemical and genetic findings in the diagnosis of atypical Norrie disease
  12. General Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
  13. Various glycolysis inhibitor-containing tubes for glucose measurement cannot be used interchangeably due to clinically unacceptable biases between them
  14. Measurement uncertainty of γ-glutamyltransferase (GGT) in human serum by four approaches using different quality assessment data
  15. Oxidation of PTH: in vivo feature or effect of preanalytical conditions?
  16. A comparison between high resolution serum protein electrophoresis and screening immunofixation for the detection of monoclonal gammopathies in serum
  17. The key incident monitoring and management system – history and role in quality improvement
  18. Is it necessary for all samples to quantify 25OHD2 and 25OHD3 using LC-MS/MS in clinical practice?
  19. Contamination of dried blood spots – an underestimated risk in newborn screening
  20. Comparative study of the diagnostic and prognostic value of antibodies against chimeric citrullinated synthetic peptides and CCP3/CCP3.1 assays
  21. Development and validation of a multivariable prediction rule for detecting a severe acquired ADAMTS13 activity deficiency in patients with thrombotic microangiopathies
  22. Use of the sFlt-1/PlGF ratio to rule out preeclampsia requiring delivery in women with suspected disease. Is the evidence reproducible?
  23. Evaluation of a new free light chain ELISA assay: bringing coherence with electrophoretic methods
  24. Hematology and Coagulation
  25. The frequency of occurrence of fish-shaped red blood cells in different haematologic disorders
  26. Reference Values and Biological Variations
  27. Pediatric reference intervals for 29 Ortho VITROS 5600 immunoassays using the CALIPER cohort of healthy children and adolescents
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  29. Prevalence and causes of abnormal PSA recovery
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  32. Letters to the Editor
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