Dear Jonathan,
This is an interesting one. What actually happened was that a coach in
the States turned in a syringe containing an 'unknown' compound. The
steriod expert, a Dr Caitlin, analysed the compound and came to the
conclusion it was probably an unknown synthetic anabolic steroid. From
the mass-spectra data they then deduced the structure and then
synthesized the suspected compound which turned out to have an identical
spectra to the unknown - great bit of detective work that took a good
few months to complete. Armed with the standard drug screening labs now
know what they are looking for (by GC Mass spec probably using selected
ions) and some atheletes seem to have been caught red-handed.
Pity that the same scientific input couldn't be directed to solving some
of our clinical problems !
Dr AM Wallace,
Dept Clinical Biochemistry,
Macewen Building,
Royal Infirmary,
Glasgow
G4 0SF
tel(direct) :- 0141 211 4490.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Kay [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 22 October 2003 06:50
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: THG
Can anyone explain the chemistry behind the retrospective identification
of tetrahydrogestrinone in specimens from athletes. Are analysts just
looking at existing ?GC ?MS records for the appropriate peaks, or are
they reanalysing the specimens with different ? chromatographic ?
immunossay methods?
Jonathan
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