title: Detection of anabolic steroid administration: ratio of urinary testosterone to epitestosterone vs the ratio of urinary testosterone to luteinizing hormone.
abstract: Our goal in this study was to determine whether the urinary ratio of testosterone to luteinizing hormone (T/LH) as an indicator of exogenous anabolic steroid (AS) use is superior to the urinary ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone (T/E). After 2 weekly placebo injections, 19 subjects were given testosterone cypionate (TC) injections of 250 or 500 mg/week for 14 weeks followed by 14 weekly placebo injections. Patients were considered to have ceased taking TC if they tested negative 9 weeks after their last injection. For detection of illicit or supraphysiological TC (AS) use, the urinary T/E ratio of > or = 6 yielded a false-negative rate of 46% and a false-positive rate of 4%. However, a urinary T/LH ratio of > or = 30 produced a false-negative rate of only 24% and a false-positive rate of 13%. We conclude that the urinary T/LH ratio of > or = 30 is a more sensitive marker of AS use than the urinary T/E ratio of > or = 6 and remains sensitive for twice as long as urinary T/E.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City 52246, USA. paul-perry@uiowa.edu
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Perry
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: MacIndoe
authors.forename: W R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Yates
authors.forename: S D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: T L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Holman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D045930:Anabolic Agents; D004300:Doping in Sports; D004845:Epitestosterone / Q000652:urine*; D005188:False Negative Reactions; D006801:Humans; D007700:Kinetics; D007986:Luteinizing Hormone / Q000652:urine*; D008297:Male; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000379:methods*; D013739:Testosterone / Q000652:urine*
chemical_list: D045930:Anabolic Agents; D013739:Testosterone; D004845:Epitestosterone; D007986:Luteinizing Hormone