Summer Olympic sports and female athletes: comparison of anti-doping collections and prohibited substances detected in Australia and New Zealand vs. France.

Like any athlete, female athletes may be tempted to use prohibited substances during competition or training to enhance their performance. Anti-doping tests performed on female athletes in summer Olympic sports from two geographical areas: Australia/ New Zealand, and France were compared. First, the distribution of sample collections across different sports disciplines, as well as the distribution of substances was investigated.

Thyroid Hormone Abuse Among Elite Athletes.

Context: Thyroid hormone (TH) abuse for performance enhancement in sport remains controversial and it is not prohibited in sports under the World Anti-Doping Code. However, the prevalence of TH usage in athletes is not known.

Objective: We investigated TH use among Australian athletes undergoing antidoping tests for competition in World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-compliant sports by measuring TH in serum and surveying mandatory doping control form (DCF) declarations by athletes of all drugs used in the week prior to the antidoping test.

Reliability of Drug History to Verify Androgen Abuse in Men.

Context: Clinical evaluations that require excluding androgen abuse, a secretive, illicit activity, rely on the drug history, but its veracity for androgen abuse has neither been verified nor has any objective corroborating laboratory test been validated.

Objective: In a high-risk population, to (a) validate the drug history of androgen abuse objectively using state-of-the-art World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited antidoping laboratory urine mass spectrometry tests and (b) to determine what biochemical tests best distinguish androgen abuse from nonuse in this population.

Methods: Urine samples from current (n = 41) and past (n = 31) androgen abusers and nonusers (n = 21) were analyzed by comprehensive mass spectrometry-based detection tests for androgens and related drugs (ARD).

Performance- and image-enhancing drug use in the community: use prevalence, user demographics and the potential role of wastewater-based epidemiology.

Performance- and image-enhancing drug (PIED) misuse is a significant public health issue. Currently, seizure data, surveys, anti-doping testing, and needle service provider data are used to estimate PIED use in populations. These methods are time consuming, single point-in-time measurements that often consist of small sample sizes and do not truly capture PIED prevalence.

A multi-parametric approach to remove the influence of plasma volume on the athlete biological passport during a Union Cycliste Internationale cycling stage race.

Fluctuations in plasma volume (PV) present potential confounders within the concentration-based markers of the haematological athlete biological passport (ABP). Here, a multi-parametric approach involving a simple blood test is applied to the current ABP adaptive model in an attempt to remove the influence of PV expansion, induced by a cycling stage race. Blood samples were obtained from 29 professional cyclists (14 male, 15 female) before, during and after 4-5 consecutive days of racing.

Assessment and forensic application of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for the discrimination of Australian window glass.

A commercially available laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument was evaluated for the determination of elemental composition of twenty Australian window glass samples, consisting of 14 laminated samples and 6 non-laminated samples (or not otherwise specified) collected from broken windows at crime scenes. In this study, the LIBS figures of merit were assessed in terms of accuracy, limits of detection and precision using three standard reference materials (NIST 610, 612, and 1831). The discrimination potential of LIBS was compared to that obtained using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), X-ray microfluorescence spectroscopy (μXRF) and scanning electron microscopy energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDX) for the analysis of architectural window glass samples collected from crime scenes in the Canberra region, Australia.

Vacuum metal deposition: visualisation of gold agglomerates using TEM imaging.

Vacuum metal deposition (VMD) is a well-established technique that can be used for the development of latent fingermarks on a range of polymer surfaces, including polyethylene (PE) bags exposed to harsh environmental conditions. The technique has also proved to be effective on difficult semi-porous surfaces such as the polymer banknotes in circulation in Australia and in an increasing number of other countries. VMD is a two-stage technique.