Current Role of LC-MS/MS in Sports Drug Testing

Chromatographic and Mass Spectrometric techniques have become an invaluable tool in the continuing fight against illegal doping in sport. The great majority of current assays employed in this field rely on the power of identification obtained from retention times and (product ion) mass spectra derived from hundreds of target analytes. The inventive nature of cheating athletes and the growing pool of drugs and therapeutics have necessitated the need for comprehensive, sensitive and specific detection methods and LC combined with MS has been shown to provide the necessary characteristic for the detection of low and high molecular weight compounds. Professor Mario Thevis here outlines the problems, challenges and successes in this continuing war against the cheats.