Dried blood spotting (DBS) is a convenient blood collecting and sampling method which is widely applied in newborn screening and blood analysis. At the moment, the practice is to try to keep the blood within a marked circle in a thin porous filter paper. However, it is not always possible to predict exactly how the blood spot spreads inside the filter papers and it depends on many factors including the properties of the filter papers, blood properties and how the blood is deposited on the filter paper. In this paper, we aim to identify the relationships between the physical properties and the spreading behaviour of blood on a typical DBS filter paper (Whatman 903). Pig’s blood was used to mimic the behaviour of human blood and investigate the spreading/imbibition processes of blood drops on the filter paper. Both top and side views were used to analyse the spreading/imbibition behaviour. The experimental data present the haematocrit effect on the spreading dynamics of blood for dried blood spot sampling. The results obtained prove that the spreading/imbibition time dependences of droplet height, droplet base radius and contact angle are universal function of dimensionless time.
History
School
Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering
Department
Chemical Engineering
Citation
CHAO, T.-C. ... et al, 2014. Influence of haematocrit level on the kinetics of blood spreading on thin porous medium during dried blood spot sampling. Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, 451, pp.38-47.
NOTICE: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in the journal Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfa.2014.03.033