Metrix BioMed And Metrix Labs Announce Saliva (Oral) Drug Screen Confirmation Testing

Online, September 6, 2011 (Newswire.com) - The advantages of toxicology testing with saliva are many - no loss of fidelity in the specimen, far less time consuming to collect, less embarrassment to the patient and easier for the patient to give a specimen. Metrix BioMed offers CLIA waived drug screening / medication monitoring, and has added the option of collecting the specimen via a saliva sample, administered very similar to the way a strep or flu test specimen is administered for confirmation testing via its wholly owned subsidiary, Metrix Labs. Some frequent questions regarding saliva testing, as well as its benefits over urine testing, are highlighted below.

Laboratory Methodology
The first step of testing is called screening, and is done with the same methodology as urine and blood. This method is called ELISA, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Any sample that screens positive is then retested with LC/MS/MS, the latest in drug confirmation technology. LC/MS/MS, liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry, is the most sensitive confirmation method available; it will detect drug amounts of 0.5ng/mL and lower. It can be used for oral fluid, urine, hair, blood, and sweat samples. LC/MS/MS positively identifies and quantitates each drug separately.

Detection Window
All methods of drug testing, which include oral fluid, urine, hair, blood, and sweat, have different windows of detection. Oral fluid and blood samples identify drug usage within the first four or five hours, this will be missed by urine or hair samples. A sample of 1.5 inches of hair will detect drugs up to 90 days earlier, but not the first 10 to 14 days after usage. Urine, because it is a metabolite, will detect drugs for a slightly longer period than oral fluid and blood. In oral fluid, most drugs can be found for one to three days after the last dose (this is also true with blood and urine).

The advantages of Oral Fluid Testing
Unlike urine testing, we have tested a wide range of adulterants and have not found any that interfere with an oral fluid test, as long as the donor is constantly observed. This is the advantage of oral fluid: it CAN be observed without embarrassment, is collected by the donor themselves, is very fast to collect (1 to 5 minutes), and has a more sensitive testing procedure than urine (LC/MS/MS). Urine can be adulterated in many ways, whilst a saliva specimen can not.