Sample validity even for pre-employment test?

[killercam]

In regards to testing for the creatine, you can buy adulterant strips which have ph, creatine, and a few other tests on the strip as well. Basically, you dip the strip in the urine, and the 5 or 6 small squares on the strip will all turn a different color. They provide you with a chart which indicates what each color means, and this is how you can see if your creatine levels, and ph levels are normal or abnormal.

Suppose I drink 48oz of gatorade before the test. Should I drink all this at once, or should I stretch my fluid consumption out? Do I want to stay away from coffee? Will drinking 48oz of water give me abnormal creatine levels?

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

[tp82007]

In regards to testing for the creatine, you can buy adulterant strips which have ph, creatine, and a few other tests on the strip as well. Basically, you dip the strip in the urine, and the 5 or 6 small squares on the strip will all turn a different color. They provide you with a chart which indicates what each color means, and this is how you can see if your creatine levels, and ph levels are normal or abnormal.

That's really interesting. I never knew those existed. where do you get them? pH makes sense (after I wrote this I thought of high school science and Litmus paper).

Suppose I drink 48oz of gatorade before the test. Should I drink all this at once, or should I stretch my fluid consumption out? Do I want to stay away from coffee? Will drinking 48oz of water give me abnormal creatine levels?

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

I think the sticky says to drink it fairly quick. However injesting 48 oz of fluid all at once could be somewhat difficult. I don't think it means *chug*. IME, I drank about 48oz over a 30-45 minute period (that's just the fastest I could do it). After I finished 1.5 bottles of gatorade I started having to go. But would replace those fluids with drinking more gatorade. All in all, probably about 2.5 20oz bottles.

The water has to possiblity of giving off levels which would cause a dilute result, that's why they recommend sports drinks. While gatorade won't do anything for creatinine clearence, it will help specific gravity because of the sodium content. The only thing you can do about creatinine clearence is a) take creatine tabs 2-3 days before (or longer, but follow directions). Or increasing your red meat intake (or fish too I hear).

[Burnt Toast]

The creatinine test strips can be found by doing a search for drug adulteration test kits on google.com. Prices vary depending on the vendor, but they are dirt cheap overall.

TIP: When I use the strips, particularly when I test premixed synthetic urines such as the Quick Fix, I prefer not to submerge the strip in the sample. For starters, too much care must be taken when you withdraw the strip from the sample to take a reading. When the test strip is withdrawn vertically, you stand the great chance of cross-contaminating the other panels when the colors of the reagent pads "bleed off" and run down to the neighboring reagent
pad(s), making for erroneous readings. Therefore, the test strip would have to be withdrawn from the sample as horizontally as possible without spilling any of the sample. A virtually impossible feat.

Second, by dipping the test strip into the QF, the chances of reagent contamination of the QF solution itself are higher than you think. Remember, youre planning to use the QF once it passes your validity checks, as opposed to a real human sample that eventually gets discarded by the lab once the validity and actual drug checks are completed.

Perhaps to overcome all of these headaches, I instead use a dropper to withdraw the sample from the container (like the labs do) and, with the test strip laying flat on a paper towel, I make drops on each reagent pad (panel). When doing this, make the drops thick enough to create a bead on the pad. Then, after a minute, drain off the excess by tipping the test strip on its side, before getting a reading. Again, the idea is to prevent reagent pad cross-contamination, as Ive described earlier.

[killerweed420]

Drinking any fluid helps its just some are better than others.Any diuretics like coffee or good cause they make you pee. If you drink 40 -48 ounces of fluid the morning of the test you shouldn't get a negetive dillute. Dillution just means you're trying to get the total thc content in your urine below the 50ng limit by increasing the total amount of fluid that the thc is mixed with. You have the same amount of thc in your urine its just being mixed with 40 ounces of fluid verses maybe 5 ounce of fluid normally.

[killercam]

Thanks guys.......so if I drink 50oz of a gatorade/water mixture 2 hours before the test, will my sample be too diluted? I am just trying to get an idea as to what is "over-doing it" as far as hydration goes.

[killerweed420]

The drug techs authorize 40 ounces but 50 would probably bee fine as long as you haven't been drinking tons of fluid the pass few days.

[killercam]

Thanks. Does anyone know if abnormal creatine levels indicate dilution or sample adulteration? I have heard the latter.

[SteelerCat]

I think the abnormal creatine levels indicate dilution not adulteration. I'm sure someone with more knowledge could verify.

[Burnt Toast]

Below is the criteria established by the US Dept of Health & Human Services.......


Creatinine is checked in conjunction with specific gravity to determine

- Diluted sample. A diluted sample is ruled when the creatinine is between 2 - 20 mg/DL, and the specific gravity is between 1.0010 - 1.0030 on a single aliquot.

- Substituted sample . A sample is ruled substituted if the creatinine level is between 0 - 2 mg/DL, and the specific gravity is less than or equal to 1.0010, or greater than or equal to
1.0200 on both the initial and confirmatory creatinine tests (i.e., the same colorimetric test may be used to test both aliquots), and on both the initial and confirmatory specific gravity tests (i.e., a refractometer is used to test both aliquots) on two separate aliquots.

An adulterated sample is determined when

- The pH is less than 3 or greater than or equal to 11 using either a pH meter or a colorimetric pH test for the initial test on the first aliquot and a pH meter for the confirmatory test on the second aliquot;

- The nitrite concentration is greater than or equal to 500 mcg/mL using either a nitrite colorimetric test or a general oxidant colorimetric test for the initial test on the first aliquot, and a different confirmatory test (e.g., multi-wavelength spectrophotometry, ion chromatography, capillary electrophoresis) on the second aliquot;

- The presence of chromium (VI) is verified using either a general oxidant colorimetric test (with a greater than or equal to 50 mcg/mL chromium (VI)-equivalent cutoff) or a chromium (VI) colorimetric test (chromium (VI) concentration greater than or equal to 50 mcg/mL) for the initial test on the first aliquot, and a different confirmatory test (e.g., multi-wavelength spectrophotometry, ion chromatography, atomic absorption spectrophotometry, capillary electrophoresis, inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry) with the chromium (VI) concentration greater than or equal to the LOD (Limit Of Detection) of the confirmatory test on the second aliquot;

- The presence of halogen (e.g., bleach, iodine, fluoride) is verified using either a general oxidant colorimetric test (with a greater than or equal to 200 mcg/mL nitrite equivalent cutoff or a greater than or equal to 50 mcg/mL chromium (VI)-equivalent
cutoff) or halogen colorimetric test (halogen concentration greater than or equal to the LOD) for the initial test on the first aliquot, and a different confirmatory test (e.g., multiwavelength
spectrophotometry, ion chromatography, inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry) with a specific halogen concentration greater than or equal to the LOD of the confirmatory test on the second aliquot;

- The presence of glutaraldehyde is verified using either an aldehyde test (aldehyde present) or the characteristic immunoassay response on one or more drug immunoassay tests for the initial test on the first aliquot, and GC/MS for the confirmatory test with the glutaraldehyde concentration greater than or equal to the LOD of the analysis on the second aliquot;

- The presence of pyridine (pyridinium chlorochromate) is verified using either a general oxidant colorimetric test (with a greater than or equal to 200 mcg/mL nitrite equivalent cutoff or a greater than or equal to 50 mcg/mL chromium (VI)-equivalent cutoff) or a chromium (VI) colorimetric test (chromium (VI) concentration greater than or equal to 50 mcg/mL) for the initial test on the first aliquot, and GC/MS for the confirmatory test with the pyridine concentration greater than or equal to the LOD of the analysis on the second aliquot;

- The presence of a surfactant is verified by using a surfactant colorimetric test with a greater than or equal to 100 mcg/mL dodecylbenzene sulfonate-equivalent cutoff for the initial test on the first aliquot, and a different confirmatory test (e.g., multi-wavelength spectrophotometry) with a greater than or equal to 100 mcg/mL dodecylbenzene sulfonate-equivalent cutoff on the second aliquot.

Hope this all helps a little
:smokin:

[jeffman]

Thanks BT, That looks like great info to have.