Screening for hydroxyethyl starch (HES) doping in sport

Red Blood Cell-Mimicking Synthetic Biomaterial Particles: The New Frontier of Blood Doping?

“…This unfair practice includes a variety of methods or substances, such as blood transfusions, administration of recombinant human erythropoietin and novel erythropoiesis-stimulating substances such as the continuous erythropoiesis receptor activator (CERA), artifi cial oxygen carriers, allosteric hemoglobin modulators, as well as various altitude training simulator systems [4,5,8] . Since most of these techniques produce substantial variations of the hematological profi le, and can be now be reliably detected by direct [2,3] and indirect techniques (e. g., the hematological passport) [7] , plasma volume expanders [11] as well as other hemodiluting agents (e. g., desmopressin) [10] can also be occasionally administered to attenuate the artifi cial increase in hematological values induced by the diff erent blood doping practices. The use of blood transfusion, an extremely straightforward, practical and eff ective mean for increasing the red blood-cell supply, achieved broad popularity in the 1970s, but its use suddenly declined in the early 1980s, being replaced by more sophisticated strategies, such as the administration of recombinant human erythropoietin and other erythropoiesis-stimulating substances.…”

Systematic analysis of glycerol: colourimetric screening and gas chromatography–mass spectrometric confirmation

“…Only 71 (2.7%) were considered suspect, demonstrating that the method filtered out 97.3% of the samples that needed to be submitted to GC-MS; however, no positive results were found. [11] Screening of glycerol can be similarly performed by a colourimetric method. By the same token, confirmation of suspicious (presumptive analytical findings) samples must apply a mass spectrometric method.…”

“…The method was successfully applied for screening of HES in 2627 urine samples from 1346 Brazilian soccer players and 1281 athletes from the Pan‐American Games (Rio de Janeiro, 2007). Only 71 (2.7%) were considered suspect, demonstrating that the method filtered out 97.3% of the samples that needed to be submitted to GC‐MS; however, no positive results were found …”

Microwave irradiation for a fast gas chromatography–mass spectrometric analysis of polysaccharide-based plasma volume expanders in human urine

“…The metabolism of HES proceeds through ␣-amylase hydrolysis of glycosidic bonds, yielding molecules small enough for renal clearance, but does not result in complete hydrolysis due to the hydroxyethylation of several glucose residues [4]. The metabolic rate is such that volume expansion is seen for 24-36 h with a maximum effect occurring shortly after infusion.…”

“…The metabolic rate is such that volume expansion is seen for 24-36 h with a maximum effect occurring shortly after infusion. 90% of the dose is eliminated through the kidneys with an half-life of about 17 days [4]. Analytical procedures usually applied to the determination of HES in human urine are gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) [5] and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) [6][7][8].…”