A Danish study is questioning the validity of testing for the performance-enhancing drug EPO.
A test to detect EPO in urine samples didn't work very well in experiments conducted last year, according to the study released online Thursday by the Journal of Applied Physiology.
For the study, researchers at the Copenhagen Muscle Research Center gave the oxygen-boosting drug to eight college students who were not athletes and collected urine samples before, during and after. The samples were tested by two labs accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which bans use of the drug by athletes.
EPO is a genetically engineered version of a natural protein, erythropoietin, that increases the number of red blood cells. It is used to treat anemia from kidney disease, cancer and other ailments.
The EPO regimen used for the seven-week study was similar to one used by athletes trying to cheat. The men had EPO injections every other day for two weeks followed by one injection per week to maintain their increased blood cell production. A urine test for EPO has been available since 2000.
The first lab found some samples positive and a few others suspicious. The lab also declared a sample positive, although the man had stopped taking the drug and it should have been gone from his urine. His previous urine sample, obtained when he was taking EPO, was negative in this lab's test.
The second lab did not deem any urine sample positive for EPO and found only a few to be suspicious. The two labs did not agree on which samples were suspicious.
"I have never seen such a drastic situation as the one reported in this article," Olivier Rabin, scientific director of the World Anti-Doping Agency, told The New York Times. He questioned whether it reflected the true state of EPO testing.
The study's lead author, Carsten Lundby, said he had mixed feelings about publishing the paper. His concern was that if he laid out the test's weakness, he was telling athletes that they can probably take EPO without getting caught.
"The list of these substances is growing," Lundby told the newspaper. "From a patient's point of view, it's great, but from an anti-doping view, it's bad. The list of substances you must test for will grow and grow."
Problems with the test have been raised before, said the authors of an editorial in the journal. They said the Danish results demonstrate that the test needs to be improved or a different strategy considered, noting that blood tests were an alternative.
"Testing for recombinant EPO in urine may seem practical at first sight but appears to be a very difficult task," wrote Dr. Joris Delanghe of Ghent University Hospital in Belgium and Dr. Michael Joyner of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
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