Thinking about dried blood spots for pharmacokinetic assays and therapeutic drug monitoring

“DBS does nothing for a mouse or a rat that an equivalent small liquid sample could not do.” For over four decades dried blood spots (DBS) have been used to track inborn errors of metabolism in neonates. A considerable business has developed around supplying both the ‘cards’ on which such spots are deposited and the methodology for assaying them. These tests are universally used for all births in the developed world. The volume of blood spotted is not determined as the blood is picked up off the lanced heel of an infant. Today, the majority of these tests are based...