Les défis du passeport biologique: du prélèvement à l’interprétation

Abstract

In 2008, the World Anti-Doping Agency officially launched the biological passport. The first validated module to operate was the blood module to fight erythropoietin (EPO) and blood transfusion abuse. It has been quite efficient to catch some doped athletes, but above all, was very good in reducing the prevalence of doping. It is unclear if athletes stopped doping or have adapted and are taking micro doses of EPO or transfusing small blood volumes. More recently, the steroid module was released, but until now, the number of urine adverse passport cases is very low. The probable explanation is a lack of standardised pre-analytical and analytical conditions. As a side effect, the within subject variation increases significantly and the sensitivity of the adaptive model decreases a lot. Some resources should be invested to improve the current system and to prevent athletes from abusing of testosterone and related compounds.