Dried blood spot analysis with liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry: Trends in clinical chemistry

Abstract

Dried blood spot samples are simple to prepare and transport, enabling safe and accessible diagnostics, both locally and globally. We review dried blood spot samples for clinical analysis, focusing on liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry as a versatile measurement tool for these samples. Dried blood spot samples can provide information for, for example, metabolomics, xenobiotic analysis, and proteomics. Targeted analyses of small molecules are the main application of dried blood spot samples and liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry, but emerging applications include untargeted metabolomics and proteomics. Applications are highly varied, including analyses related to newborn screening, diagnostics and monitoring of disease progression and treatment effects of virtually any disease, as well as studies into the physiology and effects of diet, exercise, xenobiotics, and doping. A range of dried blood spot products and methods are available, and applied liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry instrumentation is varied with regard to liquid chromatography column formats and selectivity. In addition, novel approaches such as on‐paper sample preparation (e.g., selective trapping of analytes with paper‐immobilized antibodies) are described. We focus on research papers published in the last 5 years.