Abstract

Metandienone is classified as an anabolic androgenic steroid and it is prohibited in amateur and professional sports since many years. Numerous studies on the metabolism of metandienone in humans have been performed focusing on the detection of its urinary metabolites. During the past years up to today, in doping control laboratories the major metabolic products 17α-methyl-5ß-androstane-3α,17ß-diol, 17ß-methyl-5ß-androst-l-ene-3α,17α-diol (epimetendiol) and 18-nor-17,17-dimethyl-5ß-androst-1,13-diene-3α-ol (18-norepimetendiol) have been used as target analytes for the detection of this drug. In 2006, Schänzer et al. succeeded in the identification and characterization of the new long-term metabolite 17ß-hydroxymethyl-17α-methyl-18-norandrost-1,4,13-trien-3-one. Compared with commonly detected metabolites this new compound extends the time frame for the determination of metandienone abuse by several days. In the Cologne Laboratory for Doping analysis the implementation of this new metabolite in GC/MSMS and LC/MSMS anabolic steroid screening assays resulted in a strong increase of adverse findings concerning metandienone misuse. In this article this effect is illustrated by means of various statistics. Aus dem Text (geändert)