After two years of handling urine samples and testing for steroid use, U researchers have come up with a more accurate anti-doping test.
"We're just trying to improve what we do, make it better and more accurate," said Jonathan Danaceau, lead researcher at the U's Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory.
To check for steroid use, researchers used artificial urine samples for their tests.
Natural samples weren't as successful because testosterone levels vary from male to male, making it difficult to measure whether steroids are being used. The samples are occasionally diluted because of how much water athletes drink. In these cases, steroid use can seem nonexistent because the traces are low.
"We just refined the procedure that was already in place," said Scott Morrison, a lab technician who worked on the study.
Morrison said that while they were working on their research, they decided to try running the test on a more precise and sensitive machine. The new method allowed substances that were diluted as low as one nanogram per milliliter to be detected.
Keith Henschen, sport and exercise science professor at the U, said the new testing procedure will not get rid of steroid use but will help to detect steroid use better.
"It just makes it more refined, so to speak," Henschen said.
Henshen said he doesn't think the research will affect most sports. However, he said it will add to the literature on the subject and it will make steroid testing less expensive.
"It's still not going to catch the type of people that have money that can buy the designer drugs and are using the more sophisticated types of drugs that are now available to the wealthy," Henschen said. "The people taking steroids will still be taking steroids, and they'll still be able to mask what they are taking, and that's one of the problems we have with steroid use."
However, the test limits the chances of falsely accusing an athlete of taking steroids, Morrison said.
Erin Hannan, publications and communications director of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, said that the World Anti-Doping Agency, which banned the use of steroids to keep Olympic Games fair, has its own methods to ensure athletes are clean.
"We are not aware of any cases where an athlete was falsely accused of steroid use, and there is significant due process to ensure that this does not happen," Hannan said.
Hannan said each of the WADA-accredited labs is allowed to test new methods of checking for steroid use, and for some specific instances, this new technology could be beneficial.
Henschen pointed out that steroids are not as popular to use now. Instead, athletes are taking designer drugs, substances that are created to blend into the natural makeup of the body better.
"The people taking the drugs are far advanced than the people testing the drugs because the protocols and so forth for the testing are very strict, and they have to be proved and so forth," Henschen said. "And the people not only making masking agents but also the ones that are providing the designer drugs are ahead of people that are doing the testing."
Danaceau said he sees the potential of continuing to make the test more accurate and sensitive.
The study was published in the Journal of Mass Spectrometry.
k.bowen@chronicle.utah.edu
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