Urine| Hair Follicle | Oral Fluid | Blood | ETG
Hair evaluation is now recognized as an effective method for uncovering drug and alcohol consumption. Hair captures extended-term records of alcohol and illicit substances by embedding biomarkers within the strands' growing fibers. When gathered near the scalp, hair affords a potential detection timeframe of about three months for alcohol and drugs. This approach is straightforward to obtain, challenging to tamper with, and convenient to transport.
A sample measuring 1.5 inches, comprising approximately 200 hair strands (comparable to the thickness of a #2 pencil) nearest to the scalp, yields 100mg of hair, which is the ideal quantity for both examination and verification. For EtG tests, supplementary evaluations, and examinations beyond 10 panels, a 150mg sample is advisable. Utilizing a jeweler’s scale for specimen measurement is recommended. In the absence of scalp hair, a comparable volume of body hair can be acquired. Head hair distinctly refers to scalp hair exclusively, while body hair encompasses all other types including facial and axillary hair.
Process Overview
The laboratory method for processing a drug test result involves four principal stages: Accessioning, Screening, Extraction, and Confirmation.
Accessioning consists of the preliminary integration of a sample into a lab’s system, which includes ensuring the sealed and correctly shipped sample, assigning a unique LAN (Laboratory Accessioning Number), and concluding any extra data entry absent in an electronic chain of custody system.
Screening implies an immediate basic check for drugs of abuse. It's a cost-efficient strategy to dismiss drug use in most samples, although a positive detection requires confirmation to be courtroom admissible. Each presumptively positive sample from Screening necessitates additional confirmation.
If Screening indicates a presumptive positive, additional hair is drawn from the primary sample and set for Extraction. This phase entails extracting drugs from hair at notably inferior concentrations than in various methods (e.g., urine or oral fluid), which renders hair drug testing the most challenging technique to execute.
Confirmation of any evident positive screening is administered through GC/MS, GC/MS/MS, or LC/MS/MS. All samples indicating presumptive positivity undergo washing prior to confirmation when deemed necessary. From Accessioning to Confirmation, the entire laboratory procedure is inspected under the CAP (College of American Pathologists) Hair classification and complies with the accreditation to ISO / IEC 17025 criteria.
Advantages of hair drug testing:
Limitations:
Note: Though often termed "hair follicle tests", the procedure examines the hair strand rather than the follicle beneath the scalp.
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