Beyond dried blood spot: Current microsampling techniques in the context of biomedical applications

Dried blood spot (DBS) has been used for more than 50 years for the screening of inborn errors of metabolism in newborns. Although DBS has remained the standard approach for most applications for many years, alternative sampling tools have been developed in parallel in attempts to overcome some of the well-described limitations of DBS. These alternatives were developed to accurately collect microliters of blood (typically 5-30 μl) in the least invasive way possible. In this review, three novel microsampling devices (dried plasma spots, capillary microsampling and volumetric absorptive microsampling) are compared to DBS and conventional plasma sampling. Covered domains include omics fields, pre-clinical studies, diagnosis, patient care (via therapeutic drug monitoring) and forensic toxicology. Specific advantages and limitations of each technique are presented for the different disciplines and perspectives for these promising technologies are discussed.