PeTH finger prick test?

Nurses Recovery

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Has anyone taken this test? I have a question because they use alcohol swabs to clean the collection site. The first drop of blood is wiped with gauze. Just curious if anyone else has done it with alcohol swabs. I know when you get a blood draw, they use iodine because ethanol can form if you use alcohol. So, I was surprised that the instructions said to use alcohol

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I thought the instructions specifically said not to use alcohol?

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Alcohol swabs on the finger will NOT affect the peth test result.  Peth is only formed by ingestion of alcohol where a chemical process occurs and forms phosphatidylethanol and it becomes embedded in the red blood cell.

I've done 4 peth finger prick dried blood spot tests during my monitoring (DBS) and used alcohol swabs each time to clean my finger and then pricked it and put in on those blood spot cards.

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Universe93B said:

Alcohol swabs on the finger will NOT affect the peth test result.  Peth is only formed by ingestion of alcohol where a chemical process occurs and forms phosphatidylethanol and it becomes embedded in the red blood cell.

I've done 4 peth finger prick dried blood spot tests during my monitoring (DBS) and used alcohol swabs each time to clean my finger and then pricked it and put in on those blood spot cards.

Thank you! I was so confused at the time, and kind of worried maybe it would affect the results. 

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