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Researchers from Kingston University in London have developed a rapid, highly sensitive method to analyse human hair to quantify testosterone and epitestosterone (a natural steroid). Research by the Kingston team will be released at the inaugural Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences Conference - UK PharmSci 2010 - The Science of Medicine, September 1-3.  

Researcher, Nawed Deshmukh, said that in the past five years, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) had seen a marked increase in evidence of testosterone abuse. 

Testosterone doping can be difficult to monitor using traditional methods, such as urine analysis, so the Kingston team turned to hair.  

The team created an improved method for detecting testosterone and epitestosterone, which is a key step to complement testing urine or blood samples.  

Hair is easy to store and transport and the risks of tampering and cross-contamination among the samples are greatly reduced, along with the potential for one hair analysis to cover several months. 

"Hair specimens can be collected easily, and there is negligible risk to the subject as it is not invasive. By testing the hair, we can get a retrospective history of chronic drug use," Mr Nawed said. 

"We have developed a highly sensitive, specific, reliable, reproducible and robust method to detect testosterone and epitestosterone in human hair."