Comparison of Capillary Blood Self-Collection using the Tasso-SST Device with Venous Phlebotomy for anti-SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Measurement (preprint)

ABSTRACT

Measuring seroprevalence over time is a valuable epidemiological tool for improving our understanding of COVID-19 immunity. Due to the large number of collections required for population surveillance as well as concerns about potential infection risk to the collectors, self-collection approaches are being increasingly pursued. To advance this methodology, we collected paired venous and capillary blood samples by routine phlebotomy and Tasso-SST device respectively from 26 participants and measured total immunoglobulin (Ig) and IgG antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain (RBD) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) on both specimens. Qualitatively, no discrepancies were noted in binary results between Tasso and venipuncture-derived plasma. Furthermore, in vaccinated participants, correlation between Tasso and venous Ig total and IgG specific antibody quantitative levels was high (Total Ig {rho} ; = 0.72, 95% CI (0.39- 0.90); IgG {rho} ; = 0.85, 95% CI (0.54, 0.96)). Our results support the use of Tasso at-home collection devices for antibody testing.