Urine| Hair Follicle | Oral Fluid | Blood | ETG
Hair testing is recognized as an effective method for identifying drug and alcohol consumption. It offers a prolonged history of substance use by encapsulating biomarkers in the strands of hair as they grow. Hair cut close to the scalp can indicate alcohol and drug presence within approximately a three-month timeframe. Collecting hair is straightforward, not easy to tamper with, and simple to send to laboratories.
For an ideal screening and confirmation, gathering a 1.5-inch sample of around 200 hair strands near the scalp, providing 100mg, is recommended. For tests such as EtG or those exceeding 10-panel screens, 150mg is advisable. The specimen should be weighed using a jeweler's scale. If scalp hair is missing, a similar quantity of body hair might be used instead. In terms of head hair, it exclusively means scalp hair, while body hair encompasses all other types like facial and axillary hair.
Process Overview
The major phases in processing a test result in the lab include Accessioning, Screening, Extraction, and Confirmation.
Accessioning pertains to initially logging a sample into the lab's system. This consists of ensuring secure packaging and shipping, generating a random LAN (Laboratory Accessioning Number), and entering any required data not available via an electronic tracking system.
Screening entails a preliminary rapid assessment for drug consumption. Although Screening is economical for ruling out drug usage in most samples, any positive screening result requires confirmation to be court-admissible. A secondary confirmation is essential for any samples flagged as positive during Screening.
Hair samples showing presumptive positivity during Screening have more strands taken from the original specimen for Extraction. Here, drugs are separated from hair at much lower concentrations than other schemes such as urine or oral fluid testing, making hair drug screening particularly challenging.
Positive screening confirmations are conducted using GC/MS, GC/MS/MS, or LC/MS/MS methodologies. Any samples with presumptive positivity undergo washing before confirmation as requisite. From Accessioning through to Confirmation, the full process is scrutinized under both CAP (College of American Pathologists) Hair designation and ISO / IEC 17025 accreditation.
Advantages of hair drug testing:
Limitations:
Note: Although frequently called "hair follicle tests", the analysis evaluates the hair strand itself, not the scalp-embedded follicle.
Hair follicle testing in Boonville, IN, offers superior detection compared to traditional urine tests. The benefits include:
Employers in Boonville, IN, gain a broad perspective of an individual's drug history through hair testing. This method offers:
Hair follicle tests in Boonville, IN, are notably tamper-resistant, minimizing chances of sample adulteration. This ensures:
With nationwide centers and local sites in Boonville, IN, hair testing becomes convenient and accessible. Key conveniences:
The hair testing process in Boonville, IN, is simple and confidential. It's designed to be:
In Boonville, IN, hair follicle testing is cost-effective with quick response times. This offers:
In Boonville, IN, hair follicle drug tests stand out for their speed and precision. These tests provide quick and highly accurate assessments of substance use, making them a preferred choice.
Boonville, IN, businesses enjoy compliance and security using hair follicle testing. Benefits include:
