The starting point of the analysis of blood deposited on a blotting paper was in 1960 with the test of Guthrie, a screening test of the serious diseases in the infant (cystic fibrosis, phenylketonuria, drepanocytose, congenital hypothyroidism, congenital hyperplasia of the suprarenals), starting from one blood drop taken from the heel or the back of the infant’s hand.
In the early 90’s the medical teams of Montpellier have thought about this noninvasive test within the framework of the tracking of the virus of the AIDS for the babies for whom to take 2 milliliters of blood is difficult, it’s the same problem for the drug addicts or the elderly people whose venous capital is seriously decreased.
At present, the capillary screening on blotting paper allows the access to the sampling of blood in difficult situations such as the venous precariousness (at the drug addicts or the elderly), the geographical distance or the problems of transport and storage.
Advantage of the DBS:
- Reduction of the volume of blood collected (300μl versus 5ml).
- Decrease of the risk of contamination thanks to that the drying of the blood on the DBS involves the inactivation of the viruses HIV, VHC, CMV HTL (1)
- Stable transport of the sample at room temperature by post without risk of contamination and exempted from the standard of transport of biological material category B / UN3373.
- Easy to store due to its small size. (2)
- He biological analyses are validated according to standard 15189 by hospital laboratories.
(1) Hirtz C, Lehmann S. Le prélèvement sanguin sur papier buvard : une révolution de la biologie médicale en marche ? Ann Biol Clin 2015 ; 73(1) : 25-37 doi:10.1684/abc.2014.1007
(2) Resnick L, Veren K, Salahuddin SZ, Tondreau S, Markham PD. Stability and inactivation of HTLV-III/LAV under clinical and laboratory environments, JAMA 1986 ; 255 : 1887-91
