title: Hair testing is taking root.
abstract: An increasing number of toxicology laboratories are choosing to expand the services they offer to include hair testing in response to customer demands. Hair provides the toxicologist with many advantages over conventional matrices in that it is easy to collect, is a robust and stable matrix that does not require refrigeration, and most importantly, provides a historical profile of an individual's exposure to drugs or analytes of interest. The establishment of hair as a complementary technique in forensic toxicology is a direct result of the success of the matrix in medicolegal cases and the wide range of applications. However, before introducing hair testing, laboratories must consider what additional requirements they will need that extend beyond simply adapting methodologies already validated for blood or urine. Hair presents many challenges with respect to the lack of available quality control materials, extensive sample handling protocols and low drug concentrations requiring greater instrument sensitivity. Unfortunately, a common pitfall involves over-interpretation of the findings and must be avoided.
authors.affiliation: Forensic Medicine and Science, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK. gail.cooper@glasgow.ac.uk
authors.forename: Gail Audrey Ann
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Cooper
mesh_terms: D002423:Cause of Death; D004355:Drug Stability; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs / Q000378:metabolism / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012742:Sex Offenses; D052616:Solid Phase Extraction / Q000379:methods; D013048:Specimen Handling / Q000379:methods; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis
chemical_list: D013287:Illicit Drugs