Novel volumetric adsorptive microsampling technique for determination of perfluorinated compounds in blood

Microsampling is an attractive option for significantly reducing the volume of blood taken for chemical analysis allowing for blood samples taken as a 'finger-prick' with a lancet. A novel, volumetric adsorptive microsampling (VAMS™) device, which reproducibly collects a small volume of 10 μL whole blood in a hematocrit-independent manner, is evaluated in a human biomonitoring setting, and has been utilized for analysis of several perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAA). The results show that the VAMS technique is applicable for PFAA analysis, method has good linearity, repeatability, accuracy and is sufficiently sensitive for samples from general populations. The stability of PFAAs with VAMS devices is shown to be acceptable, which supports the sampling and transportation strategy of several study designs. Furthermore, as well as allowing for a quick and efficient extraction and analysis flow path, the VAMS microsampler is an easy to use device in a real-world sample collection scenario.