Reference standards to underpin the detection of steroid abuse by athletes

In areas where analytical results can have important human and legal consequences there is a particular need for tools to ensure the accuracy of measurements. Such tools may be reference methods or reference materials that can be used by testing laboratories in their quality control procedures. They can provide a benchmark against which results all around the world can be compared. The drugs in sports arena is a highly relevant example as athletes can be tested all over the world at differing times and the outcome of such testing can have severe consequences. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) [1] was created in 1999 and is an independent organisation which coordinates an extensive suite of testing programs and accredits laboratories who are specialised in sports drug analysis. The WADA develops and publishes the “World Anti-Doping Code” [2] and each year produces a “Prohibited List” [3]. The 2008 list will come into effect on 1 January 2008 and covers all substances and doping methods which are prohibited. The WADA regularly publishes the results of its testing programs [4] and the latest statistics available are for 2006 [5]. WADAaccredited laboratories tested nearly 200,000 samples in 2006 and 2% of the results were reported as “adverse analytical findings” [5]. The different classes of compounds detected are shown in Table 1. The WADA “Prohibited List” includes a range of banned anabolic agents, commonly referred to as “steroids”. It can be seen from Table 1 that this class of compounds is the most commonly reported. This has been the case for many years and steroid abuse remains a considerable problem among the athletic community.