Urine| Hair Follicle | Oral Fluid | Blood | ETG
Hair analysis is now recognized as a crucial method for uncovering the use of substances like drugs and alcohol. This method utilizes hair's natural ability to capture long-term substance markers within its fibers as it grows. When clipped near the scalp, hair can reveal substance use history for up to around 90 days. It's straightforward to gather, challenging to tamper with, and uncomplicated to transport.
A 1.5-inch segment comprising roughly 200 hair strands (similar in thickness to a #2 pencil) closest to the scalp is needed to obtain a sample weighing 100mg, which is optimal for both initial screening and subsequent confirmation. For EtG, additional tests, or tests involving more than 10 panels, a specimen of 150mg is advisable. It's best to measure the specimen using a jeweler’s scale. Should scalp hair not be accessible, the equivalent quantity of body hair can be used instead. "Head hair" pertains exclusively to scalp hair, whereas "body hair" encompasses all other hair types (including facial and axillary hair).
Process Overview
The laboratory processing of a drug test result incorporates four essential phases: Accessioning, Screening, Extraction, and Confirmation.
Accessioning marks the beginning of sample processing into the lab's systems. This involves confirming the proper sealing and shipment of the sample, assigning a Laboratory Accessioning Number (LAN) randomly, and completing any outstanding data entry not catered for by an electronic chain of custody.
Screening is a preliminary assessment for substances of abuse. Despite being a cost-efficient technique to eliminate drug use suspicion in most cases, a positive result during Screening needs subsequent confirmation for legal admissibility. Presumptively positive samples identified in this phase require further verification.
Should the Screening phase reveal presumptive positivity, additional hair is extracted from the original specimen for the Extraction process. Here, substances are extracted from hair at a substantially lower concentration than in methodologies like urine or oral fluid testing, rendering hair drug screening the most complex methodology to conduct.
Any positive results from Screening undergo Confirmation through methods such as GC/MS, GC/MS/MS, or LC/MS/MS. Presumptive positive samples are washed as necessary preceding Confirmation. The lab procedure from Accessioning through Confirmation is thoroughly vetted under both the CAP (College of American Pathologists) Hair designation and the accreditation to ISO / IEC 17025 standards.
Advantages of hair drug testing:
Limitations:
Note: Although commonly referred to as "hair follicle tests," this testing approach exclusively examines the hair strand, not the follicle beneath the scalp.
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