Personalised testing could be effective, experts say

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Oct 1 (Reuters) Personalised blood profiling should help doping testers to tackle currently undetectable methods of cheating in sport but stringent controls are needed to make it work, experts say.

A personalised approach could help to overcome obstacles facing testers such as the differing levels of naturally occurring hormones found in various ethnic groups, International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) medical and anti-doping commission member Giuseppe Fischetto told a symposium today.

''But to compare different samples we must have standard conditions for the collection of samples, the environment they are stored in and the management of the samples by the various laboratories,'' Fischetto added.

Under proposals being studied by the IAAF and the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA), profiling would enable testers to check an athlete's blood parameters against norms based on the individual's previous tests and stored on a central database.

By comparing athletes against their own previous levels, rather than arbitrary average levels, testers believe they will be better able to detect abnormal changes that could in turn indicate doping.

The idea of profiling athletes using individual ''blood passports'' was also raised at yesterday's opening session of the anti-doping symposium, organised by the IAAF, when British world marathon champion Paula Radcliffe lent her weight to the proposal in her role as a member of the IAAF athletes' commission.

Individual profiling had shown a ''surprisingly small variety'' in an athlete's haemoglobin levels, despite significant changes of training intensity or fluid intake, according to preliminary results from a study on 38 Olympic cross-country skiers, said Copenhagen Muscle Research Centre director Bengt Saltin.

''Blood profiling would appear to be a robust method (for detecting doping), provided that the blood sampling, handling and analysis of the blood are performed in a strict and reproducible manner,'' Saltin concluded.

Other experts said the establishment of uniform testing remained a tough challenge.

Doctor Neil Robinson said the time of day, the physical position of the athlete during the test and the length of time a tourniquet was applied were among many factors that could influence the level of red blood cells in a sample.

The IAAF's medical and anti-doping commission hopes to put proposals on athlete profiling to the organisation's congress in March next year with the aim of implementing it in time for the 2007 world athletics championships in August.

Reuters SY DB2251