Prevalence Estimate of Blood Doping in Elite Track and Field Athletes During Two Major International Events

Prevalence Estimate of Blood Doping in Elite Track and Field Athletes During Two Major International Events / Raphael Faiss, Jonas Saugy, Alix Zollinger, Neil Robinson, Frédéric Schütz, Martial Saugy, Pierre-Yves Garnier. - (Frontiers in Physiology (2020) 25 February; p. 1-11).
- doi: 10.3389/fphys.2020.00160


Abstract:

In elite sport, the Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) was invented to tackle cheaters by monitoring closely changes in biological parameters, flagging atypical variations. The hematological module of the ABP was indeed adopted in 2011 by World Athletics (WA). This study estimates the prevalence of blood doping based on hematological parameters in a large cohort of track and field athletes measured at two international major events (2011 and 2013 WA World Championships) with a hypothesized decrease in prevalence due to the ABP introduction. A total of 3683 blood samples were collected and analyzed from all participating athletes originating from 209 countries. The estimate of doping prevalence was obtained by using a Bayesian network with seven variables, as well as “blood doping” as a variable mimicking doping with lowdoses of recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO), to generate reference cumulative distribution functions (CDFs) for the Abnormal Blood Profile Score (ABPS) from the ABP. Our results from robust hematological parameters indicate an estimation of an overall blood doping prevalence of 18% in 2011 and 15% in 2013 (non-significant difference) in average in endurance athletes [95% Confidence Interval (CI) 14–22 and 12–19% for 2011 and 2013, respectively]. A higher prevalence was observed in female athletes (22%, CI 16–28%) than in male athletes (15%, CI 9–20%) in 2011.
In conclusion, this study presents the first comparison of blood doping prevalence in elite athletes based on biological measurements from major international events that may help scientists and experts to use the ABP in a more efficient and deterrent way.

Original document

Parameters

Science
Research / Study
Date
25 February 2020
People
Faiss, Raphael
Garnier, Pierre-Yves
Robinson, Neil
Saugy, Jonas J.
Saugy, Martial
Schütz, Frédéric
Zollinger, Alix
Country
Switzerland
Language
English
Sport/IFs
Athletics (WA) - World Athletics
Other organisations
Université de Lausanne (UNIL) - University of Lausanne
Laboratories
Lausanne, Switzerland: Laboratoire Suisse d’Analyse du Dopage
Doping classes
M1. Manipulation Of Blood And Blood Components
S2. Peptide Hormones, Growth Factors
Substances
Erythropoietin (EPO)
Medical terms
Blood doping
Various
Athlete Biological Passport (ABP)
Prevalence
Document type
Pdf file
Date generated
26 February 2020
Date of last modification
11 November 2020
Category
  • Legal Source
  • Education
  • Science
  • Statistics
  • History
Country & language
  • Country
  • Language
Other filters
  • ADRV
  • Legal Terms
  • Sport/IFs
  • Other organisations
  • Laboratories
  • Analytical aspects
  • Doping classes
  • Substances
  • Medical terms
  • Various
  • Version
  • Document category
  • Document type
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Origin