Urine| Hair Follicle | Oral Fluid | Blood | ETG
Hair testing has increasingly been recognized as an effective means for identifying drug and alcohol consumption. Hair retains a prolonged record of substance use by capturing biomarkers within the fibers of the developing hair shaft. When sourced near the scalp, hair can reveal substance usage up to nearly a 3-month timeframe. Hair collection is straightforward, relatively resistant to tampering, and convenient to transport.
A 1.5-inch segment comprising around 200 strands of hair (approximately the girth of a #2 pencil) nearest to the scalp will provide 100mg of hair, the perfect quantity for both initial and confirmatory analysis. For EtG, enhancements, and/or assessments exceeding 10 panels, 150mg of the specimen is advisable. It is suggested to measure the specimen using a jeweler’s scale. If scalp hair is lacking, an equivalent portion of body hair may be utilized. When discussing head hair, we mean scalp hair exclusively. Body hair includes all other hair varieties (facial, axillary, etc.).
Process Overview
The primary steps in the laboratory handling of a drug test outcome are Accessioning, Screening, Extraction, and Confirmation.
Accessioning encompasses the preliminary incorporation of a sample into a laboratory’s framework. This entails verifying the sample was correctly sealed and shipped, assigning a unique LAN (Laboratory Accessioning Number), and performing any supplementary data input absent in an electronic chain of custody system.
Screening constitutes an initial rapid assessment for substances of misuse. While Screening is a cost-efficient strategy to negate drug use in most samples, a positive screen necessitates confirmation to be valid in judicial settings. Any samples that appear positive in Screening require a secondary verification.
Should a sample test positive in the Screening phase, additional hair is taken from the original specimen and prepped for Extraction. In this phase, substances are withdrawn from hair at considerably lower concentrations than other methods (such as urine or oral fluid), which underscores why hair drug screening is the most intricate methodology to execute.
Confirmation of a positive screening finding is accomplished through GC/MS, GC/MS/MS or LC/MS/MS. All presumptive positive samples are cleansed before confirmation if necessary. The comprehensive lab process from Accessioning to Confirmation is evaluated 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: Often dubbed as "hair follicle tests", the test actually examines the hair strand and not the follicle beneath the scalp
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