Study points to the futility of urine tests for salbutamol doping
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Salbutamol, also known as albuterol, is a medication that opens up constricted medium and large airways in the lungs and is often used to treat asthma.
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Using available pharmacological knowledge, the authors demonstrated that the current approach to detect excessive salbutamol use is fundamentally flawed and cannot differentiate between illegal and allowed use.
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If the doping community is determined to control for excessive salbutamol use, these procedures should be changed, ideally in collaboration with clinical pharmacologists.
Jules A.A.C. Heuberger, Sven C. van Dijkman, Adam F. Cohen. Futility of current urine salbutamol doping control. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 2018; DOI: 10.1111/bcp.13619
