International Blood Doping Tests May Miss Cheaters

June 27 -- THURSDAY, June 26 (HealthDay News) -- Tests designed to detect the illegal presence of a performance-enhancing drug that boosts blood oxygen levels in elite athletes are likely to miss those who decide to cheat, a new study claims.

The researchers recommend that the test, currently accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), be either improved or scrapped for an alternative test. However, they acknowledged in a statement that this "seems unlikely to occur before major events scheduled for 2008 like the Tour de France or the Olympic Games in Beijing."

The performance enhancer in question is recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO), and it's believed to give added stamina to athletes such as cyclists and distance runners. The current test is run on urine samples, but, in recent years, the procedure has been criticized by some, according to the study authors, who are from the Copenhagen Muscle Research Center in Denmark.

For their study, which is reported online Thursday in the Journal of Applied Physiology, the researchers took eight males who were recreational athletes, injected them with EPO, and took urine samples before the injections and on eight more occasions. They then sent two identical sets of samples to two separate, WADA-approved testing labs. The results were wildly divergent, with one lab detecting numerous positive results and the other detecting no positive results.

"The implication -- if applied to athletes -- is that there is only a small 'risk' of being tested positive" for blood doping, the researchers added.

However, WADA told the New York Times that it stands by the test and questioned the study.

"I have never seen such a drastic situation as the one reported in this article," Olivier Rabin, scientific director at WADA, told the newspaper.

This study is only the latest to look at the issue of performance-enhancing drugs.

Just last week, Australian researchers reported that when athletes think they are taking a performance-enhancing drug, their performance tends to get better -- even if they never really take the drug.