By JOE ROJAS-BURKE

March 25, 2009 | OregonLive.com

The easy way to take a blood test

It's the part of a checkup many people dread: the blood draw. Soon, it may not be necessary for many routine blood tests.

Technical advances are making it possible for laboratories to glean detailed diagnostic information from a few drops of blood collected on a paper card. And a finger prick is all that's needed.

The idea has been around since the 1960s, when hospitals began using dried blood spots to screen newborns for inherited diseases. But laboratory tools weren't accurate enough to use them for much else.

Now several research groups are reporting success at using blood spots to check adults for coronary artery disease, diabetes, hormone imbalances and vitamin deficiencies.

Beaverton-based ZRT Laboratory recently began selling a mail-in test kit that screens for five markers of heart attack risk: cholesterol, triglycerides, insulin, glycated hemoglobin and C-reactive protein. The patient collects blood drops at home and mails the card to the laboratory for analysis.

"It's convenient, inexpensive, and easy to transport," says Sanjay Kapur, ZRT's scientific director. And because the blood is dried, it poses practically zero risk of infection, he said.

Dried blood samples remain stable at room temperature for at least several days, studies have found. That and the low cost could make the method particularly useful for people living in developing countries without reliable electricity to keep blood samples refrigerated, researchers say.

Dried samples on cards also are making it cheaper and easier to conduct studies that involve screening thousands of people or tracking blood levels of a substance many times a day.

And some doctors are ordering dried blood spots for routine screening tests, particularly with patients who are phobic about giving blood.

"I don't think it's going to completely replace serum testing, but there are a lot of blood tests you can do in the privacy of your own home," says Dr. Alicia Stanton, a physician in Manchester, Conn.

Joe Rojas-Burke: 503-412-7073, joerojas@news.oregonian.com