Anabolic steroids help in increasing the muscle mass and physical strength, and are consequently used in sport and bodybuilding to enhance strength or physique. So, other than prescribed medicinal users, there are many user groups who look towards steroids to assist them in attaining the physical attributes they crave for. Such a misuse of steroids is prohibited under anti-doping policy by many sports organizations across the globe. So, a wide range of tests have been designed & are under consistent evolution to increase specificity and sensitivity of detecting and deterring performance-enhancing drugs abuse by competitors in various sports. There are many laboratory based as well as kit based methodologies for detecting testosterone or any of its known metabolites. Laboratory based techniques may involve, amongst others, antibody based screening, Liquid/GC Chromatography etc. The results obtained by Chromatographic analysis may be coupled with Mass Spectrometry (MS) for sensitive as well as specific diagnosis and for validation purposes. The nature of samples required for such tests is conciliatory as blood, urine or even hair follicle samples may be used.
Urine
