Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2014 Feb;90(2):195-210. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.13-0463. Epub 2013 Dec 23.
Tropical infectious diseases diagnosis and surveillance are often hampered by difficulties of sample collection and transportation. Filter paper potentially provides a useful medium to help overcome such problems. We reviewed the literature on the use of filter paper, focusing on the evaluation of nucleic acid and serological assays for diagnosis of infectious diseases using dried blood spots (DBS) compared with recognized gold standards. We reviewed 296 eligible studies and included 101 studies evaluating DBS and 192 studies on other aspects of filter paper use. We also discuss the use of filter paper with other body fluids and for tropical veterinary medicine. In general, DBS perform with sensitivities and specificities similar or only slightly inferior to gold standard sample types. However, important problems were revealed with the uncritical use of DBS, inappropriate statistical analysis, and lack of standardized methodology. DBS have great potential to empower healthcare workers by making laboratory-based diagnostic tests more readily accessible, but additional and more rigorous research is needed.
热带传染病的诊断和监测常因样本采集和运输困难而受阻。滤纸条可能是一种有用的媒介，可以帮助克服这些问题。我们回顾了关于滤纸条的文献，重点评估了使用干血斑（DBS）进行传染病诊断的核酸和血清学检测，与公认的金标准相比。我们共回顾了 296 篇合格的研究，并纳入了 101 项评估 DBS 的研究和 192 项关于滤纸条其他用途的研究。我们还讨论了滤纸条在其他体液和热带兽医医学中的应用。总的来说，DBS 的敏感性和特异性与金标准样本类型相似或仅略低。然而，DBS 的不恰当使用、不适当的统计分析和缺乏标准化方法导致了一些重要的问题。DBS 有很大的潜力通过使基于实验室的诊断测试更容易获得，从而赋予医疗保健工作者权力，但需要进行更多和更严格的研究。
