[Increased availability needed for analysis of anabolic androgenic steroids outside of sports - proposal of a uniform clinical analysis method in Sweden]. / Ökad analys av anabola androgena steroider utanför idrotten behövs.

ABSTRACT

The abuse of anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) outside of sports is a far greater societal problem than the abuse in sports. Therefore, there is an increasing need for a suitable clinical method for analysis of AAS in urine samples, but only three clinical laboratories in Sweden currently perform analyses of AAS outside of sports. There is a need for harmonization regarding which substances to be analyzed,  which analytes to measure and which concentration thresholds (¼cut-offs«) to us. Based on data from the three analyzing clinical laboratories, and data from the Swedish Customs Service and National Forensic Centre, a list of suggested substances, analytes and thresholds is presented. The proposed list allows detection of at least 95% of the positive samples outside of sports.