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Screening of folate status with use of dried blood spots on filter paper
1Department of Haematology, St James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland. nutrition@stjames.ie
Background:
Dried blood spots (DBS) on filter paper have been a successful and economical matrix for neonatal screening.
Objective:
Our objective was to develop and evaluate an optimized method for DBS folate analysis and to assess DBS folate stability.
Design:
DBS were eluted from paper by sonication in 5 g ascorbic acid/L containing 0.1% (by vol) Triton X-100 and hemoglobin folate values (HF; as pmol/g) were calculated from DBS eluate folate and hemoglobin concentrations.
Results:
Over 95% of DBS folate was eluted during a standardized sonication cycle and DBS folate assay reproducibility was acceptable both within (CV: <8%) and between (CV: <9%) runs. HF means (+/-1 SD) from finger-stick DBS and conventional venous methods were 2513 +/- 1144 and 2607 +/- 1195 pmol/g, respectively, in blood samples taken concurrently from 80 donors, and they correlated well (r = 0.97, P < 0.001). HF values and erythrocyte folate measures may be interconverted by using the mean cell hemoglobin concentration.
Conclusion:
The DBS matrix has potential as an inexpensive and practical option for folate screening studies.