Urine| Hair Follicle | Oral Fluid | Blood | ETG
Hair analysis is increasingly recognized as an effective means for identifying drug and alcohol consumption. Hair retains a long-term record of substance use by locking in biomarkers within its strands as they grow. When collected near the scalp, hair samples can reflect drug and alcohol intake within an approximate three-month timeframe. Collecting hair is straightforward, difficult to tamper with, and easy to transport.
To conduct screening and confirmation, a 1.5-inch segment consisting of around 200 hair strands (similar in size to a #2 pencil) from near the scalp is required to obtain 100mg of hair, which is ideal. For EtG, additional tests, and/or panels exceeding ten, 150mg of the sample is preferred. Utilizing a jeweler’s scale to weigh the sample is advisable. In the absence of scalp hair, equivalent body hair can be collected. When 'head hair' is mentioned, it pertains solely to scalp hair, whereas 'body hair' refers to other types such as facial or axillary hair.
Process Overview
The laboratory process for drug testing consists of four primary steps: Accessioning, Screening, Extraction, and Confirmation.
Accessioning entails the initial incorporation of a sample into a laboratory's system. This step ensures the sample was correctly sealed and dispatched, assigns a LAN (Laboratory Accessioning Number), and finishes any extra data entry not available through an electronic chain of custody.
Screening provides a preliminary assessment for substance abuse. Although Screening is cost-efficient for eliminating drug use in most samples, confirmation of a positive screen is essential for legal admissibility. Any specimens indicating potential positivity during Screening necessitate subsequent verification.
For samples flagged as potentially positive in Screening, additional hair from the initial batch is prepared for Extraction. In Extraction, drugs are derived from hair at much lower concentrations than in other forms like urine or saliva, contributing to the complexity of hair drug testing.
Post-screening, positive results undergo Confirmation using GC/MS, GC/MS/MS, or LC/MS/MS. Any samples presumed positive are washed before confirmation, if necessary. The complete lab procedure from Accessioning to Confirmation is evaluated under the CAP (College of American Pathologists) Hair designation as well as according to ISO / IEC 17025 standards.
Benefits of hair drug tests:
Constraints:
Note: While commonly called "hair follicle tests," the procedure examines the hair strand rather than the follicle beneath the scalp.
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