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Analysis of common biomarkers in capillary blood in routine clinical laboratory. Preanalytical and analytical comparison with venous blood

  • Julia Maroto-García ORCID logo , Sara Deza , Patricia Fuentes-Bullejos ORCID logo , Patricia Fernández-Tomás , Débora Martínez-Espartosa , María Marcos-Jubilar , Nerea Varo and Álvaro González EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: March 7, 2023
Diagnosis
From the journal Diagnosis Volume 10 Issue 3

Abstract

Objectives

Remote self-collected capillary blood samples have been proposed as alternative to venous blood samples as an aid in telemedicine. The aim of this work is to compare the preanalytical and analytical performance of these two types of samples and to study the stability of common measurands in capillary blood.

Methods

Capillary and venous blood samples were collected in parallel from 296 patients in serum tubes to analyze 22 common biochemistry magnitudes after centrifugation and in EDTA tubes to analyze 15 hematologic magnitudes. Quality of the preanalytical process was assessed applying the model of quality indicator. 24 h stability at room temperature was studied by obtaining paired capillary samples. A questionnaire of assessment was conducted.

Results

Mean hemolysis index was higher in capillary samples compared to venous blood samples (p<0.001). Regression analysis and difference analysis showed no bias for all studied biochemistry parameters and hematologic parameters, except mean corpuscular volume (MCV), between capillary and venous blood samples. Regarding sample stability, percentage deviation was higher than the corresponding minimum analytical performance specification for ferritin, vitamin D, hematocrit, MCV, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, platelets distribution wide, mean platelet volume and basophils. Finger pricking was perceived as less painful (p<0.05) than venipuncture in participants who undergo more than one blood test per year.

Conclusions

Capillary blood can be used as an alternative to venous blood for the studied parameters in automated common clinical analyzers. Cautious should be taken if samples are not analyzed within 24 h from the collection.

Keywords: capillary blood; capillary serum; remote self-collection
Corresponding author: Álvaro González, PhD, Service of Biochemistry, Clínica Universidad de Navarra, Avenida Pío XII 36, 31008 Pamplona, Spain; and Navarra Institute for Health Research (IdiSNA), Pamplona, Spain, Phone: +34 948 255400, Fax: +34 948 296 500, E-mail:
Nerea Varo and Álvaro González contributed equally to this work.

Acknowledgments

We thank Dra. María Romero for her technical assistance.

  1. Research funding: This study was partially supported by Roche Diagnostics, Barcelona, Spain.

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

  3. Competing interests: Authors state no conflict of interest.

  4. Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individuals included in this study.

  5. Ethical approval: The study was approved by the local Ethics Committee.

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Supplementary Material

This article contains supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/dx-2022-0126).

Received: 2022-11-22
Accepted: 2023-02-13
Published Online: 2023-03-07

© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.1515/dx-2022-0126
Keywords for this article
capillary blood; capillary serum; remote self-collection

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Review
  3. Cognitive biases in internal medicine: a scoping review
  4. Opinion Papers
  5. “Pivot and Cluster Strategy” in the light of Kahneman’s “Decision Hygiene” template
  6. Developing a European longitudinal and interprofessional curriculum for clinical reasoning
  7. Optimizing measurement of misdiagnosis-related harms using symptom-disease pair analysis of diagnostic error (SPADE): comparison groups to maximize SPADE validity
  8. Reframing context specificity in team diagnosis using the theory of distributed cognition
  9. Original Articles
  10. Promoting clinical reasoning with meta-memory techniques to teach broad differential diagnosis generation in a pediatric core clerkship
  11. Semantic competence and prototypical verbalizations are associated with higher OSCE and global medical degree scores: a multi-theory pilot study on year 6 medical student verbalizations
  12. Influence of comorbid depression and diagnostic workup on diagnosis of physical illness: a randomized experiment
  13. Recognition, diagnostic practices, and cancer outcomes among patients with unintentional weight loss (UWL) in primary care
  14. Quantitation of neurofilament light chain protein in serum and cerebrospinal fluid from patients with multiple sclerosis using the MSD R-PLEX NfL assay
  15. Analysis of common biomarkers in capillary blood in routine clinical laboratory. Preanalytical and analytical comparison with venous blood
  16. Comparison between cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers for differential diagnosis of acute meningitis
  17. Short Communications
  18. Exploring relationships between physician stress, burnout, and diagnostic elements in clinician notes
  19. Development of a student-created internal medicine frameworks website for healthcare trainees
  20. Case Report - Lessons in Clinical Reasoning
  21. Lessons in clinical reasoning – pitfalls, myths, and pearls: a case of crushing, substernal chest pain
  22. Letters to the Editor
  23. Ample room for cognitive bias in diagnosing accidental hypothermia
  24. Auscultation order of lung and heart sounds and autonomous noise cancellation
  25. Reliability of a single-nostril nasopharyngeal swab for diagnosing SARS-CoV-2 infection
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