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Bioanalysis Special Focus Issue: Dried Blood Spots in Bioanalysis
Available August 2010
Dried blood spot (DBS) sampling involves spotting blood from a heel- or finger-prick onto a card which is then air dried and sealed in bags with desiccant for storage and shipping. The technique offers many advantages compared to traditional liquid blood or plasma samples including:
* Low blood volume requirements are beneficial in pediatric studies and enable serial bleeding from one animal, so reducing the number of animals used in studies
* Improved data quality in preclinical toxicokinetic and pharmacokinetic studies
* Less invasive and more patient-friendly than venous cannulation
* Cards can be stored at ambient conditions, reducing sample storage and transport costs
Although DBS has a long history of use in pediatric studies and in resource-limited settings, these advantages have generated significant current interest in DBS amongst bioanalysts, toxicologists, and pharmacokineticists who see the benefits of implementing DBS sampling in their drug development programs. Consequently, a large amount of research into the use of DBS is currently underway in pharmaceutical development laboratories worldwide.
The use of these samples can make life more difficult for the bioanalyst: smaller sample volumes have the potential to limit assay sensitivity and multiple card types and extraction solvents need to be investigated as part of method development; furthermore, the full implementation of DBS in pharmaceutical laboratories necessitates a switch from plasma to blood pharmacokinetic and toxicokinetic data; this means that both scientific and regulatory aspects will need to be considered to ensure that the use of DBS as replacement matrix for plasma in supporting drug development will meet everybody’s needs and requirements.
These two themed issues of Bioanalysis will include a mixture of review and research articles demonstrating the pharmaceutical, clinical and bioanalytical applications of DBS alongside papers illustrating advances in the surrounding technologies applicable to dried blood spot bioanalysis and commentary by internationally recognized experts.
Volume 2 Issue 8 & 11
Citation: Chemical Abstracts
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ISSN: 1757-6180