Confirmation of doping with natural androgens by Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry: Simplifying the analytical procedure and increasing the evidential power

Project Title: Confirmation of doping with natural androgens by Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry: Simplifying the analytical procedure and increasing the evidential power

Researchers: A.T. Kicman, D. Cowan, N. Smith

Institution: King's College London, London, UK

Year accepted: 2007

Summary: We will manufacture polymers, which are imprinted with the molecular shape of testosterone, so that testosterone from urine can quickly fit into these imprints, like pieces from a jigsaw. The testosterone can then be easily removed for analysis by GC-C-IRMS. Further development will allow the polymer to be coated onto a small glass bar for stirring in the sample itself prior to the bar being directly transferred into a heated inlet (called a thermal desorption unit) on the GCC-IRMS, where all the testosterone is vaporized for analysis. This ‘on-line process’ is very rapid and all the isolated testosterone is analyzed thus increasing sensitivity. Finally, to prove that an abnormal 13C/12C ratio of the testosterone targeted is not because of impurities present, we intend to simultaneously analyze a portion of the sample with a standard type of spectrometer (quadrupole) attached to the GC-C-IRMS.