Urine| Hair Follicle | Oral Fluid | Blood | ETG
Recognized as a potent method for detecting drug and alcohol consumption, hair testing utilizes the trapping of biomarkers within hair fibers to offer a prolonged timeline of substance usage. When sourced close to the scalp, hair sampling can reveal drug and alcohol usage over an approximate three-month duration. This method is uncomplicated to collect, resistant to tampering, and straightforward to transport.
Collecting a 1.5-inch segment equating to roughly 200 hair strands from near the scalp provides 100mg, which is optimal for both screening and confirmation processes. For EtG, add-on tests, and assessments exceeding 10 panels, 150mg of the sample is advised. Precision in weighing is best achieved with a jeweler’s scale. If scalp hair can't be sourced, an equivalent quantity of body hair may be used instead. References to head hair solely denote scalp hair, while body hair encompasses other types like facial and axillary hair.
Process Overview
The lab processing of drug tests follows four pivotal steps: Accessioning, Screening, Extraction, and Confirmation.
Accessioning begins with integrating the sample into the laboratory's setup, ensuring it's properly sealed and dispatched, assigning a Laboratory Accessioning Number (LAN), and completing any extra data entry not automated by an electronic custody chain system.
Screening performs an expedited assessment for substance misuse. It serves as an economical preliminary filter for drug presence in most samples; however, only confirmed positive results hold legal standing. Samples flagged as presumptive positives in Screening demand a subsequent confirmation.
For samples preliminarily testing positive in Screening, additional hair is procured from the original piece and readied for Extraction. Drugs are removed from hair at significantly lower concentrations compared to techniques like urine or oral fluid analysis, characterizing hair drug screening as one of the more complex methodologies.
Positive screenings are confirmed via methods such as GC/MS, GC/MS/MS, or LC/MS/MS. Samples marked for confirmation undergo prior washing as necessary. The complete process from Accessioning to Confirmation is scrutinized under both the guidelines of the CAP (College of American Pathologists) Hair designation and ISO / IEC 17025 accreditation standards.
Advantages of hair drug testing:
Limitations:
Note: The term "hair follicle test" is a misnomer as the examination assesses the hair shaft, excluding the follicle beneath the scalp.
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