At-home blood self-sampling in rheumatology: a qualitative study with patients and health care professionals.

Background: The goal of the study was to investigate patients' with systemic rheumatic diseases and healthcare professionals' experiences and preferences regarding self-sampling of capillary blood in rheumatology care.

Methods: Patients performed a supervised and consecutive unsupervised capillary blood self-collection using an upper arm based device. Subsequently, patients (n = 15) and their attending health care professionals (n = 5) participated in an explorative, qualitative study using problem-centered, telephone interviews.

Remote self-collection of capillary blood using upper arm devices for autoantibody analysis in patients with immune-mediated inflammatory rheumatic diseases.

Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility, accuracy, usability and acceptability of two upper arm self-sampling devices for measurement of autoantibodies and C reactive protein (CRP) levels in patients with immune-mediated rheumatic diseases (IMRDs).

Methods: 70 consecutive patients with IMRD with previously documented autoantibodies were assigned to supervised and unsupervised self-collection of capillary blood with the Tasso+ or TAP II device. Interchangeability of 17 biomarkers with standard venesection was assessed by: concordance, correlation, paired sample hypothesis testing and Bland-Altman plots.