Page 161 - Advances in Forensic Applications of Mass Spectrometry - Jehuda Yinon

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in subjects who might deliberately abstain for several days before biomedical
screenings. While analysis of urine specimens cannot distinguish between
chronic use or single exposure, hair analysis can make this distinction.
Although hair is not yet a valid specimen for the International Olympic
Committee (IOC), it is accepted in most courts of justice. During the period
1998–2002, some conflicting results were observed, all involving athletes that
tested positive in urine in accredited IOC laboratories and negative in hair
in forensic certified laboratories.
A lot of experience has been aquired in the detection of opiates and
cocaine in hair. In contrast, there is a serious lack of suitable references to
interpret the analytical findings for doping agents. In hair, doping agent
concentrations for such drugs as anabolic steroids, corticosteroids, or b2-
agonists are in the range of picograms per milligram, whereas cocaine,
amphetamines, or opiates are generally found in the range of several nano-
grams per milligram. Therefore, it was the feeling of the Society of Hair
Testing to obtain a consensus on hair testing for doping agents. 27
This consensus is as follows:

1. Hair analysis can essentially contribute to doping analysis in special
cases, in addition to urine.
2. Hair specimens are not suitable for general routine control.
3. In case of positive urine results, the negative hair result cannot exclude
the administration of the detected drug and cannot overrule the
positive urine result.
4. In case of negative urine result, the positive hair result demonstrates
drug exposure during the period prior to the sample collection.
5. Before using hair analysis for doping control, sample collection and
analytical methods have to be harmonized with respect to the sophis-
ticated requirements already valid for urine.
6. The Society feels responsible to support efforts that lead to this har-
monization.
7. This statment was adopted on June 16, 1999 by the Society of Hair
Testing.

It is clear that there is a great deal of research to be performed before the
scientific questions and curiosity surrounding hair drug testing is satisfied.
Some of this is due to a lack of consensus among the active investigators on
how to interpret the results on an analysis of hair. Among the unanswered
questions, five are of critical importance: (1) What is the minimal amount
of drug detectable in hair after administration? (2) What is the relationship
between the amount of the drug used and the concentration of the drug or
its metabolites in hair? (3) What is the influence of hair color? (4) Is there

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