1. The use of whole blood capillary samples to measure 15 analytes for a home-collect biochemistry service during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: A proposed model from North West London Pathology.
- Author
-
Ansari, Saleem, Abdel-Malek, Mariana, Kenkre, Julia, Choudhury, Sirazum M, Barnes, Sophie, Misra, Shivani, Tan, Tricia, and Cegla, Jaimini
- Abstract
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed the delivery of secondary care services. Self-collection of capillary blood at home can facilitate the monitoring of patients with chronic disease to support virtual clinics while mitigating the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission. Objective: To investigate the comparability of whole blood capillary and plasma venous samples for 15 routinely used biochemical analytes and to develop and pilot a user-friendly home-collection kit to support virtual outpatient clinical services. Methods: To investigate the comparability of whole blood capillary and plasma venous samples for 15 routinely requested biochemical analytes, simultaneous samples of venous and capillary blood were collected in EDTA and lithium-heparin plasma separation tubes that were of 4–6 mL and 400–600 µ L draw volume, respectively. Venous samples were analysed within 4 h of collection while capillary samples were kept at ambient temperature for three days until centrifugation and analysis. Analyte results that were comparable between the matrices were then piloted in a feasibility study in three outpatient clinical services. Results: HbA1c, lipid profile and liver function tests were considered comparable and piloted in the patient feasibility study. The home-collect kit demonstrated good patient usability. Conclusion: Home collection of capillary blood could be a clinically-useful tool to deliver virtual care to patients with chronic disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF