Urine| Hair Follicle | Oral Fluid | Blood | ETG
Hair testing is increasingly recognized as a robust method for identifying drug and alcohol consumption. Hair serves as a long-term record of substance use by preserving biomarkers within the fibers of the growing hair strand. When hair is collected near the scalp, it offers roughly a 3-month detection period for both alcohol and other drugs. It is easy to collect, hard to adulterate, and straightforward to transport.
A 1.5-inch hair sample containing approximately 200 strands, comparable to the thickness of a #2 pencil, provides 100mg of hair, which is the perfect quantity for screening and confirmation. For EtG, add-ons, and/or tests exceeding 10 panels, 150mg of the sample is advised. We suggest using a jeweler’s scale for weighing. If scalp hair is not available, an equivalent amount of body hair may be used. When discussing head hair, we specifically mean scalp hair. Body hair includes all other hair types like facial and axillary.
Process Overview
The main four steps in the laboratory processing of a drug test result are Accessioning, Screening, Extraction, and Confirmation.
Accessioning is the initial processing of a sample into a laboratory's system, involving verification that the sample was properly sealed and shipped, assigning a random LAN (Laboratory Accessioning Number), and any additional data entry that might not be included in an electronic chain of custody system.
Screening is a preliminary assessment for substances of abuse. Although Screening is economically efficient for ruling out drug use in many samples, any positive screen needs verification to be suitable for court purposes. Samples that are presumptively positive in Screenings require further confirmation.
If a sample tests presumptively positive during the Screening phase, additional hair is pulled from the initial sample and prepared for Extraction. During this phase, drugs are extracted from hair at far lower concentrations than through other methods (e.g., urine or oral fluid), which makes hair drug screening one of the hardest methodologies to execute.
Confirmation of any positive screening result is carried out using GC/MS, GC/MS/MS or LC/MS/MS. Prior to confirmation, all presumptive positive samples undergo washing as necessary. The comprehensive laboratory process from Accessioning to Confirmation is evaluated under both the CAP (College of American Pathologists) Hair designation and in accordance with ISO / IEC 17025 accreditation.
Advantages of hair drug testing:
Limitations:
Note: Though commonly called "hair follicle tests", the actual test evaluates the hair strand and not the follicle beneath the scalp.
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