Re: RC: Drug Traces

[Tivers@aol.com]

In a message dated 5/15/99 4:31:50 AM Pacific Daylight Time, lbm@ici.net 
writes:

<< OK, I have to ask:  What does "ELISA" stand for?
 
 And do I understand you correctly that it *isn't* as though one puts
 the blood or urine into a little hopper and the machine finds everything
 that's in it from a list of, oh, 100+ substances that the machine knows
 about.  But rather you have to know in advance which substances you
 are going to test for, that each test might be quite different, and
 that the list of tests that any given machine can find tends to be
 rather short, so short that California's 22 is considered very thorough?
 Are they even separate procedures on separate machines?
 
 On the topic of public education:  I remembered something last night
 that I had forgotten.  Spring shot vaccinations often contain some
 kind of mild sedative, mixed in by the manufacturer.  I found this out to
 my surprise when one year I mounted up immediately after my horse had had
 his shots and discovered that his walking heart rate was consistently 15
 beats lower than normal.  I thought he was going into shock!  I called up
 the vet and he explained about the tranquilizer.  I have no idea what the
 substance was nor how long it would show up in a blood test.
 
 It never occurred to me that, to take up this sport, my horse would
 have to become a practising Christian Scientist!
 
 Linda B. Merims
 lbm@ici.net
 Massachusetts, USA
  >>

Can't tell you what the initials stand for, but it's a kind of immunoassay. 
That is, they develop cells that react to a given drug, put them on a strip 
and then sell the strips to drug labs. Each drug has to have its own 
immunoassay developed. 

These are extremely sensitive tests and when a lab suddenly finds a lot of 
positives for a given substance it is typically chastised by the horse racing 
industry. At that point, the sensitivity bar is usually lowered to a level 
where only the blatent abusers are called positive.

ti


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