DRUG TESTING SHOULD CONSIDER ETHNICITY
by admin ~ March 16th, 2009.
Administration of drug tests in international sports should consider ethnicity as one of the factors that could alter the results of the tests. This is according to Swiss researchers who discovered that there is a difference between the levels of testosterone and epitosterone ratio (T:E) in Caucasians and Asians.
In a study published by the British Journal of Sports Medicine, which was released at the height of steroid use in international sports the testosterone and epitosterone in the urine specimen will determine if it is positive for steroid use. The threshold set for athletes is four and above. However, the gene UGT2B17 has been proven to vary in every ethnic group each of which has varying threshold. The metabolic rate and the rate of testosterone that appears in the urine depend on these variations.
From The Los Angeles Times:
In the new study, Swiss researchers demonstrated the inaccuracy of using a threshold of four for everyone. They added steroids to urine samples from 171 athletes: 57 men of black African ethnicity, 32 of Asian ethnicity, 32 of Hispanic ethnicity and 50 Caucasians. The men were soccer players between the ages of 18 and 36. The researchers found a variation in the UGT2B17 gene in 22% of the athletes, including eight out of 10 Asian men.
Based on the genetic variations, the researchers recalibrated the thresholds for suspected doping for each group and concluded an appropriate threshold would be 5.6 for men of black African ethnicity, 5.7 for Caucasians, 5.8 for Hispanics and 3.8 for Asian men
Baseball stars such as Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Alex Rodriguez have been accused of using steroids. Rodriguez have admitted guilty to using performance enhancing drugs in 2001-2003 while Bonds and Clemens face perjury raps for lying about their steroids use.
Category: Anabolic Steroids | Tags: Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, British Journal of Sports Medicine, drug tests, ethnicity, Roger Clemens, steroids, UGT2B17