Urine| Hair Follicle | Oral Fluid | Blood | ETG
Hair analysis has emerged as a robust instrument for identifying drug and alcohol consumption. Hair can record a long-term timeline of alcohol and drugs by embedding biomarkers within the hair shaft. When gathered near the scalp, hair can reveal a detection period extending up to roughly three months for alcohol and drugs. Hair is straightforward to collect, somewhat difficult to tamper with, and convenient to transport.
A 1.5-inch segment of approximately 200 hair strands (about the width of a #2 pencil) nearest the scalp will provide 100mg of hair, which is the optimal quantity for analysis and verification. For EtG, additional testing, and/or panels exceeding 10, 150mg of hair is advised. It's best to use a jeweler’s scale for weighing the hair. If scalp hair is lacking, a comparable amount of body hair may be used. When mentioning head hair, we mean only scalp hair. Body hair includes all other hair types (facial, underarm, etc.).
Process Overview
The four essential steps in the analysis process of a drug test sample are Accessioning, Screening, Extraction, and Confirmation.
Accessioning involves the initial integration of a sample into a test lab's framework. This comprises verifying the sample's seal and shipment integrity, allocating a random LAN (Laboratory Accessioning Number), and completing any supplementary data entry not covered by an electronic chain of custody system.
Screening consists of a preliminary rapid inspection for abuse substances. Screening is an economical approach to exclude drug use in most samples, although a positive screen requires confirmation to be legally acceptable. Any samples that are tentatively positive in Screening necessitate a secondary confirmation.
If a sample shows a tentative positive in Screening, more hair is extracted from the original sample and processed for Extraction. During this step, drugs are isolated from hair at a much reduced concentration compared to other methods (like urine or saliva), making hair drug analysis the most challenging method to execute.
Verification of any positive Screening result is achieved through GC/MS, GC/MS/MS, or LC/MS/MS. All tentative positive samples are cleansed before confirmation if needed. The complete lab process from Accessioning to Confirmation is overseen under both the CAP (College of American Pathologists) Hair category and the accreditation to ISO / IEC 17025 benchmarks.
Advantages of hair drug testing:
Limitations:
Note: Although often termed as "hair follicle tests", the test actually examines the hair shaft and not the hair follicle beneath the scalp
Hair follicle testing stands superior to urine testing in Dirgin, TX, due to its numerous advantages.
Drug use detection is significantly extended with hair follicle testing in Dirgin, TX.
Dirgin, TX benefits from the tamper-resistant nature of hair follicle tests.
Convenience in Dirgin, TX is highlighted by our vast network of testing facilities.
The hair follicle testing process in Dirgin, TX is both simple and confidential.
In Dirgin, TX, competitive pricing and rapid turnarounds characterize our hair follicle testing services.
In Dirgin, TX, the precision and swiftness of hair follicle drug tests provide immense benefits. Fast and accurate, these tests are known for their ability to detect substances with high accuracy. Hair testing not only ensures reliable results but also does so quickly, offering a significant advantage over other methods that may take longer to process.
For Dirgin, TX employers, hair follicle testing is synonymous with compliance and reassurance.
