Observational study finds Touch Activated Phlebotomy reduces pain in autistic and non-autistic adults compared to traditional venipuncture

Purpose: Blood draws have been associated with significant discomfort, especially for individuals with sensory hypersensitivity, as is common in autism. This results in avoidance of medical appointments and creates difficulties for scientific studies recruiting from this population. Touch Activated Phlebotomy (TAP) is a novel capillary blood collection technique that reduces the discomfort of blood draws, and here we aimed to assess its tolerability to autistic adults. Our secondary aim was to assess whether capillary and venous blood provide equivalent measurements of Vitamin B6 concentrations. Methods: 23 participants (11 autistic: 12 non-autistic) were recruited, and two TAP devices were administered before providing pain ratings. Traditional venipuncture was also carried out in the non-autistic individuals, with the same pain measures reported. Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assays (ELISAs) were conducted to quantify concentrations of Vitamin B6. Results: The TAP device caused significantly less pain than the traditional venipuncture procedure. Furthermore, TAP pain ratings in autistic individuals did not differ meaningfully from non-autistic individuals. Vitamin B6 concentrations showed minimal bias and good agreement between capillary and venous blood, and high repeatability between repeated capillary samples. No clear difference in Vitamin B6 concentrations was observed between autistic and non-autistic participants. Conclusion: TAP is a well-tolerated method of obtaining capillary blood samples from autistic adults for medical and research purposes, and this has the potential to reduce avoidance of medical appointments in this population. Like most analytes tested to date, measurement of Vitamin B6 in capillary blood is a valid and reliable alternative to traditional venous samples.