Urine| Hair Follicle | Oral Fluid | Blood | ETG
Hair testing has emerged as a robust means for uncovering drug and alcohol consumption. Hair captures a detailed history of alcohol and drugs by embedding biomarkers within the hair strand's fibers. When taken close to the scalp, hair can offer up to a three-month detection duration for alcohol and drugs. Hair collection is straightforward, hard to tamper with, and simple to transport.
A 1.5-inch portion of roughly 200 hair strands (about the thickness of a #2 pencil) nearest the scalp will provide 100mg of hair, which is the ideal quantity for analysis and validation. For EtG, supplemental, and/or evaluations exceeding 10 panels, 150mg of the specimen is advised. Measuring the specimen with a jeweler’s scale is suggested. If scalp hair is not present, an equivalent amount of body hair may be used. When we mention head hair, we mean scalp hair alone. Body hair covers all other hair types (facial, axillary, etc.).
Process Overview
The main steps in lab handling of a drug test result are Accessioning, Screening, Extraction, and Confirmation.
Accessioning entails the primary integration of a sample into a lab’s system. This encompasses ensuring the sample was securely sealed and transported, giving it a unique LAN (Laboratory Accessioning Number), and finalizing any remaining data entry absent in an electronic custody chain system.
Screening entails a preliminary spot test for drug abuse. Although Screening is an economical method to eliminate drug usage in most samples, a positive result needs confirmation for legal admissibility. Samples presumptively positive in Screening require a follow-up verification.
If a sample yields a presumptively positive outcome during Screening, more hair is extracted from the original specimen and prepared for Extraction. At this step, drugs are derived from hair at much lower concentrations compared to alternative methods (e.g., urine or saliva), making hair drug screening the most challenging to execute.
Verification of any positive screening result is undertaken using GC/MS, GC/MS/MS, or LC/MS/MS. All samples initially positive are cleansed before confirmation if necessary. The complete lab process from Accessioning to Confirmation is assessed under both the CAP (College of American Pathologists) Hair classification and the ISO / IEC 17025 accreditation.
Benefits of hair drug testing:
Constraints:
Note: While frequently dubbed "hair follicle tests," the test evaluates the hair strand, not the follicle beneath the scalp.
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