TY - JOUR

T1 - Analysis of dried blood spots is a feasible alternative for detecting ephedrine in doping control

AU - Solheim, Sara Amalie

AU - Thomas, A

AU - Ringsted, Thomas Kamm

AU - Thevis, Mario

AU - Breenfeldt Andersen, Andreas

AU - Holm-Sørensen, Henrik

AU - Nordsborg, Nikolai Baastrup

AU - Mørkeberg, Jakob

N1 - This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Dried blood spot (DBS) testing allows fast, easy, and minimally invasive collection of microvolumes of blood. In an anti-doping context, DBS testing has particular relevance for substances prohibited in-competition only such as ephedrine, which is currently detected by urine analysis, since DBS can add information about the blood drug concentrations during the in-competition period. Several collection methods and devices exist for DBS collection from different anatomical sites. Thus, agreements between concentrations of target analytes in DBS samples from different sampling sites, along with between DBS and those in conventional venous plasma samples, need to be evaluated. Herein, we collected matched upper-arm DBS, fingerprick DBS and venous plasma samples from 8 healthy, male subjects in an 8-hour period following oral administrations of 20 mg ('low dose') and 60 mg ('high dose') of ephedrine. We show that the use of alternative sampling sites and matrices are feasible possibilities for ephedrine analysis in doping control. We observed very good agreement between collection sites and that specificity and sensitivity can be upheld despite use of an alternative collection site. However, potential concentration differences between DBS and venous plasma should be considered, and distinct threshold might be necessary if implementing both blood matrices in ephedrine analysis.

AB - Dried blood spot (DBS) testing allows fast, easy, and minimally invasive collection of microvolumes of blood. In an anti-doping context, DBS testing has particular relevance for substances prohibited in-competition only such as ephedrine, which is currently detected by urine analysis, since DBS can add information about the blood drug concentrations during the in-competition period. Several collection methods and devices exist for DBS collection from different anatomical sites. Thus, agreements between concentrations of target analytes in DBS samples from different sampling sites, along with between DBS and those in conventional venous plasma samples, need to be evaluated. Herein, we collected matched upper-arm DBS, fingerprick DBS and venous plasma samples from 8 healthy, male subjects in an 8-hour period following oral administrations of 20 mg ('low dose') and 60 mg ('high dose') of ephedrine. We show that the use of alternative sampling sites and matrices are feasible possibilities for ephedrine analysis in doping control. We observed very good agreement between collection sites and that specificity and sensitivity can be upheld despite use of an alternative collection site. However, potential concentration differences between DBS and venous plasma should be considered, and distinct threshold might be necessary if implementing both blood matrices in ephedrine analysis.

KW - Faculty of Science

KW - Anti-doping

KW - Dried blood spot

KW - Ephedrine

KW - Plasma

KW - Sampling site

U2 - 10.1002/dta.3338

DO - 10.1002/dta.3338

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 35738840

VL - 14

SP - 1685

EP - 1695

JO - Drug Testing and Analysis

JF - Drug Testing and Analysis

SN - 1942-7603

IS - 10

ER -