New Anti-Doping Test Increases Detection Window for Oral-Turinabol and Winstrol to Six Months

Anti-doping laboratories in Germany and Russia have had a major breakthrough in steroid detection technology according to the German public television broadcaster ARD. Researchers have introduced a new test that is significantly better at detecting trace quantities of certain anabolic steroid metabolites in urine samples.

Grigory Rodchenko, the director of Antidoping Centre in Moscow, now claims that the detection window for Oral-Turinabol and Winstrol tablets has been increased to over six months. Athletes could have previously used these oral steroids up to the last few weeks prior to an in-competition drug screen. Steroid-using athletes have known exactly how many days were required to discontinue the use of steroids to avoid a positive steroid test result. But now the anti-dopers have changed the rules with their latest victory in the never-ending cat-and-mouse game.

"With this detection method, 100 urine samples have now tested positive that would previously have turned up negative...” said. Rodchenko. "Traces of Oral-Turinabol were discovered, for example, in urine samples from the pre-competition testing at the 2013 World Athletics Championships."

Hans Geyer, an analyst at the Institute of Biochemistry at the German Sport University in Cologne, has confirmed the potential of the new test to catch numerous steroid users (who had likely thought they could get away with using steroids with impugnity).

"By my count, we have hundreds of positive cases that we would otherwise never have found," Geyer said. "With these improved procedures, it will definitely be possible to isolate positive cases in high-risk sports.”

Oral-Turinabol was created by the state-owned pharmaceutical company Jenapharm Pharmaceutical Company in the former East Germany. Jenapharm created the steroid specifically at the request of the GDR as a performance-enhancing drug (PED) for GDR Olympic athletes.

Oral-Turinabol was the favorite steroid among East German during the 1970s and 1980s. While Americans loved their Dianabol and the Russians loved their Retabolil, the East Germans loved Turinabol.

The new test for Oral Turinabol and Winstrol doesn't just complicated the steroid protocols of future athletes competing in WADA-sanctioned sporting events. It is also making former Olympic athletes who have competed within the past eight years quite nervous.

The reason is that WADA requires the storage of urine and blood samples for a period of eight years following collection. This gives anti-doping researchers extra time to uncover previously-unknown designer steroids or previously-undetectable steroids with new and advanced methods of detection.

Arne Ljungqvist, the chairman of the International Olympic Committee's Medical Commission, couldn't wait to have old urine samples retrieved from the official, climate-controlled Olympic storage center in Switzerland in order to be re-tested.

"This case is a good example of the necessity of performing re-tests on Olympic doping samples,” Ljungqvist said. “I would certainly conduct retests here. We have the mandate for that, after all." 

This means that samples from athletes who competed at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and the 2012 London Summer Olympics could all (or selectively) be re-tested.

How many former Olympians will be retroactively busted for steroids? And will any big names be among them?

Source:

PRNewswire. (November 18, 2013). Anabolic Steroids Lead to Hundreds of Positive Doping Tests. Retrieved from //www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/exclusive-news-from-ard-german-tv-news-programme-new-methods-for-detecting-anabolic-steroids-lead-to-hundreds-of-positive-doping-tests-232331651.html