Dried blood spots for anti-doping: Why just going volumetric may not be sufficient

Abstract

The perspective discusses quantitative DBS analysis for anti-doping testing in an athletic population and why only using volumetric sampling for this subgroup might not be enough. It presents examples to highlight where HCT variations occur, followed by a whole blood to plasma ratio and an HCT extraction bias discussion. Finally, options to correct for the HCT bias are presented.

Keywords: WADA; anti-doping; dried blood spots; hematocrit; volumetric sampling.