Solutions for hematocrit bias in dried blood spot hormone analysis

Abstract

Over the last years, dried blood spot (DBS) sampling has gained significant interest due to development of analytical techniques combined with DBS, the simplicity and low cost of the method. Despite its wide use, DBS sampling can lead to inaccurate results due to the impact of the hematocrit (Hct) on the analysis. Some analytes have shown to be hardly impacted by Hct values. However, in other cases, a significant impact of Hct is observed, which requires the use of alternative approaches to circumvent this issue. This review describes the possible impact of Hct-related bias in DBS sampling in the context of hormone analysis and discusses the different methodologies that can be used to overcome this bias to ensure accurate results.