MSACL 2025 Abstract

Increasing the Accessibility of Creatinine Screening Through At-Home Collected Dry Blood Spot Samples Using an LC-MS/MS Assay

Carlos Torres
LetsGetChecked

Carlos Torres, Biology (Presenter) LetsGetChecked

Relevant Financial Disclosures (within past 24 months, reported on Aug 05, 2025) No relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose. Conflict mitigation NOT REQUIRED.

INTRODUCTION:
Health disparities in diagnosis and treatment of chronic kidney disease (CKD) are apparent. Improving access to CKD screening may decrease some of these outcomes. Blood creatinine concentrations are a mainstay in CKD screening, as it is commonly used to estimate glomerular filtration rate. Creatinine is classically measured in serum/plasma using high-throughput chemistry analyzers. In order to make screening more accessible, a non-traditional approach was taken and the sample type finger prick Dried blood spots (DBS) was chosen. This approach allows for at-home collection as an option rather than a more invasive venipuncture collection from a clinic. With the sensitivity that LCMSMS can provide, creatinine is accurately measured from dried blood spots even with minimal sample volume extract. We aim to demonstrate how dried blood spot creatinine screening via LCMS/MS has contributed to and impacted patient accessibility for CKD screening.

METHODS:
Since DBS Creatinine has become available to the public, LetsGetChecked has been able to provide a CKD screening program in collaboration with various health plans to screen patients nationwide where medically necessary. The test is CLIA certified with licensure approval from New York Department of Health; the following results were procured using data from real patients in a live clinical setting.

RESULTS:
Since March 2024, 85,667 individuals have been screened for CKD via dried blood spot creatinine with LCMSMS for analysis. The normal rate of these individuals is 85% to the abnormal rate of 15%. Out of the 85,677 patients, 3155 individuals were below the age of 50 and 82,472 were above the age of 50;46,203 were women and 39,464 were men. The total data men and women tend to increase in creatinine levels with increased in age.

CONCLUSION:
Creatinine via dried blood spot analysis has been able to contribute to CKD screening through collaboration with health plans, as 85,667 individuals have been reached. By improving awareness and participation of DBS creatinine testing, patient screening numbers could be comparable to blood creatinine screening. Future directions would be increasing contributions from individuals <50 years old that are at-risk. In addition, analysis of cohort data with collaborations with health plans to generate statistical trends that could be used to enhance the effectiveness of such screening programs.