1. Detection of EPO injections using a rapid lateral flow isoform test
- Author
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Lönnberg, Maria, Lundby, Carsten, Lönnberg, Maria, and Lundby, Carsten
- Abstract
Misuse of recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) is a major concern in competitive sports, and the implementation of tests allowing for higher detection rates than what current tests are capable of is required. In this study, a novel lateral flow EPO isoform test kit, EPO WGA MAIIA, is evaluated on the basis of plasma and urine samples obtained from eight healthy males in connection with a 28-day rhEPO injection period. rhEPO was injected every other day during the first 14 days of the study, and the method proved to be 100 % effective in detecting rhEPO in the concomitantly obtained samples. Seven days after the last injection, three positive (>99.99 % confidence limit (CL)) subjects were found. When using 99 % CL as the cut-off limit, six of the eight subjects (75 %) were found to be suspected of doping. Samples obtained 14 and 21 days after the last injection showed no detectable trace of rhEPO. A previous study using indirect methods to determine EPO doping on the same samples indicated only that two of the subjects had suspicious values 7-21 days after the last injection. We propose implementing the easy to-use EPO WGA MAIIA test as an initial screening procedure in anti-doping work to (1) increase the detection rate of potential rhEPO doping athletes and (2) allow for a 10- to 20-fold higher analytical rate than what is possible today.
- Published
- 2013
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