title: Good agreement between capillary and venous sampling for lectin pathway proteins.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The lectin pathway of complement activation, in particular mannose-binding lectin (MBL), has been extensively investigated over recent years. So far, studies were exclusively based on venous samples. The aim of this study was to investigate whether measurements of lectin pathway proteins obtained by capillary sampling are in agreement with venous samples.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective study including 31 infants that were admitted with suspected early-onset sepsis. Lectin pathway proteins were measured in simultaneously obtained capillary and venous samples. Bland-Altman plots of logarithmized results were constructed, and the mean capillary to venous ratios (ratiocap/ven) were calculated with their 95% confidence intervals (CI).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The agreement between capillary and venous sampling was very high for MBL (meanratiocap/ven, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.85-1.19). Similarly, high agreement was observed for H-ficolin (meanratiocap/ven, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.72-1.44), MASP-2 (1.04; 0.59-1.84), MASP-3 (0.96; 0.71-1.28), and MAp44 (1.01; 0.82-1.25), while the agreement was moderate for M-ficolin (meanratiocap/ven, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.27-2.28).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of this study show an excellent agreement between capillary and venous samples for most lectin pathway proteins. Except for M-ficolin, small volume capillary samples can thus be used when assessing lectin pathway proteins in neonates and young children.
authors: Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Department of Pediatrics, University of Berne, Berne, Switzerland. luregn.schlapbach@mater.org.au
authors: Luregn J
authors: LJ
authors: Schlapbach
authors: Andreas
authors: A
authors: Woerner
authors: Steffen
authors: S
authors: Thiel
authors: Roland A
authors: RA
authors: Ammann
authors: Christoph
authors: C
authors: Aebi
authors: Mathias
authors: M
authors: Nelle
authors: Jens C
authors: JC
authors: Jensenius
mesh_terms: D002196:Capillaries; D003168:Complement Fixation Tests; D037582:Complement Pathway, Mannose-Binding Lectin; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D013048:Specimen Handling / Q000379:methods*; D014680:Veins