Probing for factors influencing exhaled breath drug testing in sports— Pilot studies focusing on the tested individual's tobacco smoking habit and sex

Abstract

Rationale Exhaled breath (EB) was found to be a promising matrix in the field of sports drug testing due to the non‐invasive and non‐intrusive sampling procedure, but significant inter‐individual variations regarding detected drug concentrations have been observed in previous studies. To investigate whether the detectability of doping agents in EB is affected by sex or tobacco smoking, two administration studies were conducted with male and female smokers and nonsmokers concerning the elimination of the beta blocker propranolol and the stimulant pseudoephedrine into EB. Methods Following the administration of 40 mg propranolol or 30 mg pseudoephedrine, a total of 19 participants, including female and male nonsmokers as well as female and male smokers, collected EB and dried blood spot (DBS) samples over a period of 24 h. Respective analyte concentrations were determined using liquid chromatography and high‐resolution tandem mass spectrometry, and semi‐quantitative assays were characterized with regard to selectivity, limit of detection and identification, precision, linearity, and carryover. Results Both propranolol and pseudoephedrine were identified in post‐administration EB samples from female and male nonsmokers as well as female and male smokers, and the maximum detected drug levels ranged from 9 to 2847 pg/cartridge for propranolol and from 26 to 4805 pg/cartridge for pseudoephedrine. The corresponding DBS levels were in a range of 4–30 ng/mL for propranolol and 55–186 ng/mL for pseudoephedrine. Conclusions Neither the consumption of cigarettes nor the sex appears to represent a decisive criterion as to the detectability of propranolol or pseudoephedrine in EB, but inter‐individual variations regarding the detected drug levels were observed among all studied population groups.

Detection of abused drugs in human exhaled breath using mass spectrometry: A review

“…To date, LC-MS has been widely used for determination of exhaled abused drugs, showing a variety of achievements in correlations between exhaled abused drugs and individuals' smoking behaviors, 40 sex, 81 impairment window, 39 exposures, 54,56,73 and pharmacokinetics. 37,40,42,57,62 Different MS analyzers were used, for example, triple quadrupole (TQ), quadrupole trap (QT), Orbitrap, quadrupole time-of-flight (QToF), and single quadrupole (SQ), which provided different performances (Table 1).…”

Annual banned‐substance review—Analytical approaches in human sports drug testing 2021/2022–

“…Studies ranged from structuring athletic characteristics of sport disciplines 10 and the consideration of the athlete's performance passport 11 for optimized test distribution plans and menus (as exemplified by an evaluation of weightlifting performances among two groups of athletes that were either sanctioned due to AAFs or not) to assessing the utility, advantages, and limitations of alternative matrices. Among those, the recently approved use of dried blood spots (DBSs) 12 warrants mentioning due to the growing attention and promise of DBS applications in sports drug testing, 13 but also hair 14 and exhaled breath 15 were shown to allow for complementary information, potentially qualifying for future routine doping controls and/or case‐related follow‐up investigations.…”