Gold Standard Screening

Screening

Initial screening for drugs of abuse normally involves the use of antibody based immunoassay systems. This immunoassay system is now seen as the “Gold Standard” drugs of abuse testing.

We are one of  the leading providers of legally defensible drug testing services in Europe and can provide a range of test panels to accommodate regulated industry standards including:

We can arrange for test panels to be customised on request from a wide range of drugs. As well as screening for drugs our lab also performs a range of sample validity checks on all samples which include specific tests for adulteration or substitution of samples.

Confirmation

All samples which screen positive by immunoassay must be confirmed by a different more specific technique. We employ both Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) and Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LCMS/MS). GC and LCMS analysis unequivocally identifies specific drugs or metabolites and also provides a quantitative level of each compound which is useful in interpretation of the results.

GC and LCMS results help the toxicologists differentiate between legitimate use of medication and use of illicit substances.

Traditionally GCMS was considered to be the “Gold Standard” in confirmation analysis. However in recent years LCMS/MS has become the technique of choice for confirmatory testing. The urine testing laboratory has 3 state of the art LCMS/MS systems as well as a number of GCMS systems dedicated to drug testing services.

Accreditation

Our laboratory is accredited to ISO 17025:2005 to perform drug and alcohol testing through the United Kingdom Accreditation Service UKAS. It is also LINK-UP approved and holds ISO9001:2000.

Other Services

As well as providing routine immunoassay testing we can also screen for a range of other substances by Gas Chromatography (GC) and Gas Chromatograph/liquid chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC/LCMS).