The Case of the EPO-Poisoned Syringe
Despite the high number of anti-doping tests, analytical techniques constantly improved with lowered limits of detection and the preventive education programs for athletes, doping has proved difficult to eliminate. A doping case is often not only a matter of detecting a prohibited substance. The adverse analytical finding (AAF) needs explanation and the doping case often ends up in court. This process means that the athlete risks suspension for a number of years (usually between two and four years) and this sometimes means the end of a sports career.
However, the rights of the accused athlete must remain in the front and center and for the process, it is of utmost importance that the trial is fair and that there is an opportunity for the athlete to have a proper defense, including also the addressing of the question: could a prohibited substance end up in the sample without the athlete’s knowledge? Contamination of dietary supplements or more rarely of medicinal drug products has been reported.
In some cases, the prohibited substance that was found was not declared on the product label. It is nevertheless the athlete’s responsibility to provide proof of this possibility. Even more rarely, “poisoning” can occur if the prohibited substance is intentionally given to an athlete in order to undermine a career.
This was the case for the sprint canoeist, Seiji Komatsu, whose rival, Yasuhiro Suzuki, introduced metandienone, an anabolic steroid, into his drink during the Japanese national canoe sprint championships in 2017. After Komatsu repeatedly claimed his innocence, the Japan Canoe Federation investigated until Suzuki cracked under pressure and confessed to intentionally trying to discredit his rival.
In this case report, we present another intriguing story. In 2018, a doping control conducted in the French anti-doping laboratory led to the detection of recombinant erythropoietin (rEPO) in the blood and urine samples of an athlete. Following the reported AAF, the athlete claimed that he had been poisoned and that the AAF was a result of treatment with an anticoagulant, a medicinal product used to treat a previous injury. A syringe of the anticoagulant was still in the athlete’s possession, and it was sent to the French anti-doping laboratory for analysis.
Marchand A, Martin L, Martin J-A, Ericsson M, Audran M. The case of the EPO-poisoned syringe. Drug Testing and Analysis 2019. Error - Cookies Turned Off
Despite the high number of anti-doping tests, analytical techniques constantly improved with lowered limits of detection and the preventive education programs for athletes, doping has proved difficult to eliminate. A doping case is often not only a matter of detecting a prohibited substance. The adverse analytical finding (AAF) needs explanation and the doping case often ends up in court. This process means that the athlete risks suspension for a number of years (usually between two and four years) and this sometimes means the end of a sports career.
However, the rights of the accused athlete must remain in the front and center and for the process, it is of utmost importance that the trial is fair and that there is an opportunity for the athlete to have a proper defense, including also the addressing of the question: could a prohibited substance end up in the sample without the athlete’s knowledge? Contamination of dietary supplements or more rarely of medicinal drug products has been reported.
In some cases, the prohibited substance that was found was not declared on the product label. It is nevertheless the athlete’s responsibility to provide proof of this possibility. Even more rarely, “poisoning” can occur if the prohibited substance is intentionally given to an athlete in order to undermine a career.
This was the case for the sprint canoeist, Seiji Komatsu, whose rival, Yasuhiro Suzuki, introduced metandienone, an anabolic steroid, into his drink during the Japanese national canoe sprint championships in 2017. After Komatsu repeatedly claimed his innocence, the Japan Canoe Federation investigated until Suzuki cracked under pressure and confessed to intentionally trying to discredit his rival.
In this case report, we present another intriguing story. In 2018, a doping control conducted in the French anti-doping laboratory led to the detection of recombinant erythropoietin (rEPO) in the blood and urine samples of an athlete. Following the reported AAF, the athlete claimed that he had been poisoned and that the AAF was a result of treatment with an anticoagulant, a medicinal product used to treat a previous injury. A syringe of the anticoagulant was still in the athlete’s possession, and it was sent to the French anti-doping laboratory for analysis.
Marchand A, Martin L, Martin J-A, Ericsson M, Audran M. The case of the EPO-poisoned syringe. Drug Testing and Analysis 2019. Error - Cookies Turned Off
