Page 149 - Advances in Forensic Applications of Mass Spectrometry - Jehuda Yinon

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sizes reported in the literature range from a single hair to 200 mg, cut as
close to the scalp as possible. When sectional analysis is performed, the hair
is cut into segments of about 1, 2, or 3 cm, which corresponds to about 1,
2, or 3 months’ growth.

3.2.2 Decontamination Procedures

Contaminants of hair would be a problem if they were drugs of abuse or
their metabolites, or if they interfered with the analysis and interpretation of
the test results. It is unlikely that people would intentionally or accidentally
apply anything to their hair that would contain a drug of abuse. The most
crucial issue facing hair analysis is the avoidance of technical and evidentiary
false-positives. Technical false-positives are caused by errors in the collection,
processing, and analysis of specimens, while evidentiary false-positives are
caused by passive exposure to the drug. Various approaches for preventing
evidentiary false-positives due to external contamination of the hair speci-
mens have been described.
Most but not all laboratories use a wash step; however, there is no con-
sensus or uniformity in the washing procedures. Among the agents used in
washing are detergents such as Prell shampoo, surgical scrubbing solutions,
surfactants such as 0.1% sodium dodecylsulfate, phosphate buffer, or organic
solvents such as acetone, diethyl ether, methanol, ethanol, dichloromethane,
hexane, or pentane of various volumes for various contact times. Generally,
a single washing step is realized; sometimes a second identical wash is per-
formed. As opposed to crack, cannabis, or smoked heroin, decontamination
when testing for doping agents does not appear to be a critical need.

3.3 Analysis of Doping Agents

3.3.1 Detection of Anabolic Steroids

Athletes use both endogenous (testosterone, DHEA) or exogenous (nan-
drolone, stanozolol, mesterolone, etc.) anabolic steroids because it has been
claimed that they increase lean body mass, increase strength, increase aggres-
siveness, and lead to a shorter recovery time between workouts.
The first data available for endogenous steroids in hair were given late in
5
1995 by the German group of Scherer and Reinhardt, who determined by
GC/MS androstenediol (9 to 19 pg/mg), testosterone (13 to 24 pg/mg),
androstenedione (5 to 15 pg/mg), DHEA (21 to 56 pg/mg), dihydrotestoster-
one (2 to 8 pg/mg) and 17alpha-hydroxy-progesterone (1 to 7 pg/mg). Some
6,7
years later, Kintz et al. established the physiological concentrations of both
testosterone and DHEA with a distinction between the hair of male and

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