Do dried blood spots (DBS) have the potential to support result management processes in routine sports drug testing?

Abstract

Dried blood spots (DBS) have been considered as complementary matrix in sports drug testing for many years. Especially concerning substances prohibited in-competition only, the added value of DBS collected concomitantly with routine doping control urine samples has been debated, and an increasing potential of DBS has been discussed in the scientific literature. To which extent and under which prerequisites DBS can contribute to enhanced anti-doping efforts is currently evaluated. As a proof-of-principle, two analytical applications, one targeting cocaine/benzoyl ecgonine and the other prednisone/prednisolone, are presented in this perspective to indicate potential added value but also presently existing limitations of the DBS approach.