Venipuncture is commonly used to collect blood to test infliximab (IFX) levels. Dried blood sampling (DBS), which uses capillary blood collected from a finger prick, would be a more patient-friendly method of measuring IFX blood levels. The goal of this study is to evaluate the accuracy of IFX blood levels determined by venipuncture vs DBS in patients with paediatric inflammatory bowel disease (PIBD). In patients with PIBD, a prospective clinical pilot research was carried out. Blood was obtained concurrently by venipuncture and DBS from a finger prick prior to IFX infusion utilising Mitratips (Neoteryx). An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to detect all IFX concentrations. Twenty people were involved in the study. The average age was 12.1 years. According to the Bland-Altman plot, the mean difference between the two techniques was 0.14. The margins of agreement were between 1.39 and 1.12. The interclass correlation value was 0.998, which is considered excellent. The Cohen kappa between the three IFX level groups was high. In the included patients, there was a significant connection between venous IFX serum levels and DBS.
This is the first research in PIBD patients to demonstrate that bloodspot technology provides a patient-friendly alternative approach for measuring IFX blood levels in PIBD.
