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Adaptation of assays on dried blood has advantages of ease of collection, transportation, minimal invasiveness and requirement of small volume. A method for extraction and estimation of triglyceride from blood spots dried on filter paper (Whatman no. 3) has been developed. A single dried blood spot containing 10 muL blood was used. Triglyceride was efficiently extracted in methanol from blood dried on filter paper by incubation at 37 degrees C for two hours with gentle shaking. For the estimation, a commercially available enzymatic method was used. Blood spot assays showed mean intra and inter assay coefficient of variance of 6.0% and 7.4% respectively. A comparison of paired whole blood spots and plasma samples (n = 75, day 0) gave an intraclass correlation of 0.96. The recovery was 99.6%. The dried blood triglyceride concentrations were stable for one month when the filter discs were stored at room temperature (16-28 degrees C). Storage of filters at 4 degrees C extended the stability and triglycerides could be quantitatively recovered after 3 months of storage.