Determination of some immunologic parameters in capillary blood samples

A technique for the collection of capillary blood samples and their subsequent analysis is described. The procedure is especially intended for use in children, stomatologic patients and individuals under load test who are to be screened for the level of immunoglobulins. The applicability of this method was verified in a group of 71 patients treated for various chronic liver lesions at the Research Institute of Balneology. The aim was to avoid the distress of repeated venous blood samplings to patients who had to be examined for the dynamic of changes in their immunologic parameters. Totally, nine immunologic parameters were simultaneously determined in the capillary and venous blood of these patients. As confirmed by statistical processing of the data (t-test, F-test, correlation coefficients and regression line equations were calculated) both methods proved equally suitable in terms of the results yielded so that either of them can be safely used for routine human serum analyses. However, the use of the capillary blood technique turned out to cause less discomfort to the patients, and appears to be distinctly of advantage in children and stomatologic patients as well as in repeated blood samplings during load tests and examinations in animal experiments.