Dried Blood Microsampling-Based Therapeutic Drug Monitoring of Antiepileptic Drugs in Children With Nodding Syndrome and Epilepsy in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Nodding syndrome is a highly debilitating, generalized seizure disorder, affecting children in subregions of sub-Saharan Africa. Despite numerous efforts to uncover the etiology, the exact cause of this syndrome still remains obscure. Therefore, to date, patients only receive symptomatic care, including the administration of first-generation antiepileptic drugs for seizure control.

Evaluation of the Performance and Hematocrit Independence of the HemaPEN as a Volumetric Dried Blood Spot Collection Device.

Dried blood spots (DBS) are often used as a less invasive alternative to venous blood sampling. Despite its numerous advantages, the use of conventional DBS suffers from the hematocrit (hct) effect when analyzing a subpunch. This effect could be avoided by using hct-independent sampling devices, of which the hemaPEN is a recent example.

Fully automated therapeutic drug monitoring of anti-epileptic drugs making use of dried blood spots.

Fully automated dried blood spot (DBS) extraction systems, online coupled to standard liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) configurations, decrease the hands-on time associated with conventional DBS analysis, resulting in a higher sample throughput, making the technique more compatible with a high-capacity bioanalytical workflow. The aim of this study was to develop and validate an LC-MS/MS method, using a DBS-MS 500 autosampler, for the determination and quantification of four anti-epileptic drugs (carbamazepine, valproic acid, phenobarbital and phenytoin) and one active metabolite (carbamazepine-10,11-epoxide) in DBS samples. Method development included thorough optimization of the fully automated extraction procedure (i.

Feedback from the fourth European Bioanalysis Forum Young Scientist Symposium.

Since 2014, the European Bioanalysis Forum organizes a Young Scientist Symposium. The meeting format was created to provide development opportunities for young scientists to engage in international discussions. Creating a peer community of young scientists has been a proven recipe to lower the threshold and promote engagement in this community of young talents.

Is the hematocrit still an issue in quantitative dried blood spot analysis?

Hematocrit-related issues remain a major barrier for (regulatory) acceptance of the classical dried blood spot (DBS) analysis in the bioanalytical and clinical field. Lately, many attempts to cope with these issues have been made. Throughout this review, an overview is provided on new strategies that try to cope with this hematocrit effect (going from avoiding to minimizing), on methods estimating a DBS volume, and on methods estimating or measuring the hematocrit of a DBS.

Evaluation of the Capitainer-B Microfluidic Device as a New Hematocrit-Independent Alternative for Dried Blood Spot Collection.

The hematocrit-bias still remains one of the most discussed issues when it comes to dried blood spot (DBS) analysis. Therefore, many attempts to cope with this issue have been made, among which the development of novel sampling tools such as the Capitainer-B (further referred to as MF (microfluidic)-DBS) devices. These are designed to allow a straightforward absorption of a fixed volume (13.

Correction to: Volumetric absorptive microsampling as an alternative tool for therapeutic drug monitoring of first-generation anti-epileptic drugs.

We would like to call the reader's attention to the fact that unfortunately in fig. 2 of the original article the figure headings of both graphs are the same.

Volumetric absorptive microsampling as an alternative tool for therapeutic drug monitoring of first-generation anti-epileptic drugs.

Dosage adjustment of anti-epileptic drugs by therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is very useful, especially for the first-generation anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs). Microsampling-the collection of small volumes of blood-is increasingly considered a valuable alternative to conventional venous sampling for TDM. Volumetric absorptive microsampling (VAMS) allows accurate and precise collection of a fixed volume of blood, eliminating the volumetric blood hematocrit bias coupled to conventional dried blood spot collection.