Development and evaluation of a simplified method to collect blood samples to determine hemoglobin and hematocrit...

A simplified method for the simultaneous determination of hemoglobin and hematocrit using dried capillary blood collected on chromatographic paper discs was developed and evaluated under laboratory and field conditions. The paper disc method (PDM) was compared with traditional laboratory methods (TM) in blood samples collected from human subjects with a wide range of hemoglobin and hematocrit values. Associations between PDM and TM were highly significant (p less than 0.001). Correlation coefficients were 0.90454 for hemoglobin and 0.9266 for hematocrit and there were no significant differences between mean values obtained by both procedures. Hemoglobin levels in discs remained unchanged during a storage for 1 mo. Hematocrit values, however, were constant throughout a 6-mo evaluation. On average, the percent coefficients of variation were 3.4 and 8.3% for determinations of hemoglobin and hematocrit, respectively. It is concluded that PDM represents a practical alternative approach for assessing hematological status in the field.