Urine| Hair Follicle | Oral Fluid | Blood | ETG
Hair analysis is increasingly viewed as a robust method for identifying drug and alcohol consumption. Hair offers an extended timeline of substance use by encasing biomarkers within the strands as they grow. When samples are gathered near the scalp, they can reveal drug and alcohol intake over an approximate 90-day period. Collection is straightforward, tampering is somewhat challenging, and transportation is simple.
A sample of 1.5 inches consisting of roughly 200 hair strands (comparable to the width of a #2 pencil) closest to the scalp will yield around 100mg, which is the perfect amount for both screening and confirmation testing. For EtG, additional assessments, and/or tests exceeding 10 panels, 150mg of hair is advisable. Using a jeweler’s scale to weigh the sample is recommended. Should scalp hair be unavailable, equivalent body hair may be utilized. By head hair, we mean solely scalp hair. Body hair includes any other hair type (such as facial or axillary).
Process Overview
The laboratory analysis of a drug test result involves four primary steps: Accessioning, Screening, Extraction, and Confirmation.
Accessioning includes the initial sample management within a lab's framework. It ensures the sample is appropriately sealed and sent, assigns a unique LAN (Laboratory Accessioning Number), and completes any necessary data entry not covered by an electronic custody chain system.
Screening is a preliminary rapid test for illicit substances. While cost-effective for negating drug use in most cases, a positive screen requires further confirmation for legal acceptability. Any samples that test presumptively positive in Screening necessitate additional confirmation.
If a sample indicates a presumptive positive result during Screening, an additional quantity of hair from the sample is set aside for Extraction. This phase involves isolating drugs from the hair at lower concentrations compared to other methods (e.g., urine or saliva), highlighting the challenge of hair drug screening.
Confirmation of positive screening outcomes is executed through methods such as GC/MS, GC/MS/MS, or LC/MS/MS. All samples with presumptive positives are cleansed as needed before confirmation. The complete laboratory procedure from Accessioning to Confirmation is regulated according to both the CAP (College of American Pathologists) Hair designation and the ISO / IEC 17025 standards accreditation.
Advantages of hair drug testing:
Limitations:
Note: Often called "hair follicle tests", the assessment actually examines the hair strands, not the follicles beneath the scalp.
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