Use of conventional bioanalytical devices to automate DBS extractions in liquid-handling dispensing tips.

Background: Conventional liquid-handling devices were employed, along with an improved punching device, to semi-automate dried blood spot (DBS) extraction of alprazolam, α-hydroxyalprazolam and midazolam from human whole blood. Liquid-handling devices were used to add internal standard to the DBS cards and to extract the analytes from the DBS, in order to be analyzed by HPLC-MS/MS.

Results: The technique was shown to be accurate (±12.0%) and precise (10.3%) across the dynamic range of the assay.

Conclusion: The semi-automated extraction reduced sample preparation time by more than 50% when compared with more conventional DBS manual extraction methods.