Cardiovascular Drug Medication Adherence Assessed by Dried Blood Spot Analysis

The use of dried blood spot (DBS) collection cards was investigated for the detection of therapeutic drugs used in cardiovascular therapy for assessing medication adherence. A liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) method was developed for the determination of, bisoprolol, ramipril, and simvastatin. Whole blood spiked with target analytes was used to produce 30 μl blood spots on specimen collection cards for calibration purposes. An 8 mm disc was cut from the dried blood spot and extracted using methanol: water (70:30, v/v). The High Resolution MS detection, at the precise mass of the target drugs, was carried out in electrospray positive ion mode. The LC-HRMS method successfully identified control volunteers who were known to be either\udadherent or non-adherent. There were no false positives from volunteers taking other cardiovascular drugs or from volunteers receiving no medication. Potentially therefore the system would identify non–adherent patients based on the absence of the target analyte in the DBS sample provided