Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 20, 2026
07:20
Dried Blood Spot Collection of Health Biomarkers to Maximize Participation in Population Studies
Published on: January 28, 2014
37.4K
A Novel, Nondestructive, Dried Blood Spot-Based Hematocrit Prediction Method Using Noncontact Diffuse Reflectance
Sara Capiau1, Leah S Wilk2, Maurice C G Aalders2
1Laboratory of Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ghent University , Ottergemsesteenweg 460, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
Analytical Chemistry
|May 21, 2016
Summary
A new, non-destructive method uses hemoglobin measurement via diffuse reflectance spectroscopy to predict hematocrit in dried blood spot (DBS) samples, overcoming previous limitations for this valuable sampling technique.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Diagnostics
- Analytical Chemistry
Background:
- Dried blood spot (DBS) sampling offers advantages for research and clinical use.
- The hematocrit effect remains a significant challenge impacting DBS quantitation accuracy.
- Previous methods for hematocrit estimation were destructive and required sample preparation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a nondestructive method for predicting DBS hematocrit.
- To utilize hemoglobin content measured by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy for hematocrit prediction.
- To address limitations of prior destructive hematocrit estimation techniques.
Main Methods:
- Developed a nondestructive method using noncontact diffuse reflectance spectroscopy to measure hemoglobin content.
- Established a linear calibration curve via log/log transformation for hematocrit prediction.
- Validated the method using quality controls, evaluated storage influence, and tested on patient samples.
Main Results:
- The method demonstrated bias and imprecision below 11% for quality controls.
- Validation on 233 patient samples showed good correlation between predicted and actual hematocrit.
- Bland and Altman analysis yielded limits of agreement of -0.076 and +0.018, indicating good agreement.
Conclusions:
- Noncontact diffuse reflectance spectroscopy of hemoglobin provides a reliable, nondestructive method for DBS hematocrit prediction.
- This technique simplifies DBS analysis by enabling rapid hematocrit determination from a simple scan.
- The findings support wider adoption of DBS sampling by mitigating the hematocrit effect.
