Urine| Hair Follicle | Oral Fluid | Blood | ETG
Hair testing has become recognized as a robust method for identifying drug and alcohol consumption. This method captures a long-term record of alcohol and drug intake by embedding biomarkers within the fibers of hair as it grows. When cut close to the scalp, a hair sample can reveal drug and alcohol data from as far back as three months. Hair is easy to gather, challenging to tamper with, and straightforward to transport.
A segment of hair measuring 1.5 inches and consisting of around 200 strands (roughly the equivalent of a #2 pencil) near the scalp suffices to supply 100mg of hair, which is ideal for both screening and verification. For EtG, additional analyses, or panels exceeding ten, a 150mg sample is advisable. It is suggested to weigh the hair using a jeweler's scale. If a person lacks scalp hair, a similar quantity of body hair can be obtained. When discussing head hair, we refer exclusively to scalp hair. Body hair encompasses all other types (such as facial and axillary hair).
Process Overview
The laboratory processing of a drug test result involves four primary phases: Accessioning, Screening, Extraction, and Confirmation.
During Accessioning, a sample is initially processed within a lab’s system. This stage involves ensuring that the specimen is sealed and properly dispatched, assigning it a random LAN (Laboratory Accessioning Number), and handling any extra data input absent from an electronic chain-of-custody framework.
Screening serves as a preliminary rapid review for substance abuse. It offers a cost-efficient way to exclude drug usage in most cases. However, a positive screening must undergo confirmation to be valid in legal contexts. Samples that test presumptively positive during Screening necessitate additional confirmation.
Should a sample be presumptively positive in the Screening phase, additional hair is taken from the original sample and readied for Extraction. This phase involves extracting substances from hair at a lower concentration than other systems (such as urine or oral fluid), rendering hair drug screening the most complex to administer.
State-of-the-art techniques like GC/MS, GC/MS/MS, or LC/MS/MS are employed for confirming positive outcomes. Any samples that test positive in preliminaries undergo washing before confirmation as deemed necessary. The entire process, from Accessioning to Confirmation, is vetted under the CAP (College of American Pathologists) Hair designation and accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 standards.
Advantages of hair drug testing:
Limitations:
Note: The term "hair follicle tests" is often used but the examination analyzes the hair strand rather than the follicle beneath the scalp.
Why Hair Follicle Testing Beats Urine Testing in Sand Point, AK
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