[Hair--a biological source in drug analysis].
Hair testing for drugs of abuse has the advantage of prolonged detection over blood, saliva, or urine analysis and is a useful diagnostic complement to them. This paper describes the main characteristics of hair as a biological sample and the mechanisms of incorporation, retention, and loss of drugs of abuse. The overview is confined to the most common procedures for determination of drugs of abuse, that is, those which involve gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Each procedure basically includes the same steps: hair washing (decontamination), cutting, extraction/digestion, clean-up, and derivatisation. Although the analysis of hair has been worked out in detail, interpretation of findings of drugs of abuse in hair is complex. The content of hair is not uniform all along; a drug does not necessarily enter through the root; there are differences in hair growth; cosmetic treatment, purity of the taken drug, and the hair colour may affect the concentration of drugs of abuse in hair. The interpretation of findings must take all that into account. Positive findings of drugs of abuse in hair reflect chronic/recurring consumption but do not positively establish the quantity or time of consumption.
Institut za medicinska istrazivanja i medicinu rada, Zagreb. Ljiljana.Skender@imi.hr
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D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000379:methods*