Friday, January 29, 2010

Laboratory Procedure Of Drug Testing

Drug testing is highly accurate and reliable when all features of the testing process are done correctly. If improper procedures or testing methods are used, the result can be very misleading and inaccurate. The three important aspects of good drug testing are strict collection procedures, proper testing procedures, and unplanned notification.

Drug testing must be done without notification. Specimen collection for drug testing should be done with proper monitoring or else there are chances for addicted person to mislead with other techniques. At first a screening test should be performed, which is very easy procedure, if the result is positive, then confirmatory test procedure should be done. The confirmatory test procedure is a sophisticated procedure and is done in laboratory using Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS). If the result is positive in confirmation test, then he or she is said to have abused drug. As a particular drug has particular cutoff level, the positive result of screening test is not considered final. The result must be notified as early as possible, as it becomes late, the level of drug disappears from body and he or she may claim that they do not use drug.

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