Dried blood spot is a form of collection where patients place blood drops on a filter card after a finger prick with a lancet. Once dry, blood spot cards are extremely stable for shipment and storage, and the dried blood format offers excellent correlation with serum tests. While testing endogenous hormones in serum or blood spot reveals the same levels, assessing topical hormone supplementation with serum testing grossly underestimates the amount of hormone being delivered to tissues. Blood spot tests blood in the capillary beds (arterial/venous/lymphatic) from the finger, and thus better reflects tissue hormone levels.

Practical

Sample type:

Dried blood spot