Residents of Rotterdam with a donor hook can take blood samples at home | MedNet

The Erasmus MC Transplant Institute in Rotterdam has introduced the dried blood spot method for people with a donor hook.

People who have undergone a kidney transplant and are being monitored at Erasmus MC can now take blood samples at home. The patient drops a drop of blood on the filter paper through the click of a finger. The patient then sends the card to the laboratory. The amount of immunosuppressants in the blood is determined there, as is the value of creatinine.

Thanks to the dried blood spot (DBS) method, blood sampling is no longer necessary before an examination by the nephrologist. This will save a lot of time and hospital visits, expects Dr. Brenda de Winter, hospital pharmacist at Erasmus MC. Determining blood values ​​in advance is also more effective. “In the long term, it may even be plausible that such periodic monitoring is carried out by e-consultation, if the values ​​are stable,” says De Winter in the Erasmus MC press release .

DBS was introduced a few years ago in Groningen, Leiden and Amsterdam UMCs, among others. The procedure works well, as long as the patient does the blood test correctly. The first patients at the Transplant Institute have now received DBS lessons. In the long term, people with liver, heart or lung transplants can also use DBS. Hospitals from the area can join the project.

Source:

Erasmus MC