- Joined
- Dec 14, 2022
The fact that this report has no units is driving me nuts so I'm going to put them here.
The units for hair tests are typically pg/mg. Meaning picograms of drug or drug metabolite per milligram of hair.
Another way to look at this is its the same as parts per billion (ppb).
1 pg/mg = 1 ppb = 1 part cocaine per billion parts hair
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The test cutoff is 500 pg/mg, meaning any results below this number will be ignored and considered a 'negative'
Nick's daughter's result was over 5000 pg/mg, or ten times the cutoff.
As far as adults go, the magnitude of the result is in the bottom 10% of adult cocaine users. But Nick's daughter also weighs 2.2 times less than an adult.
The following chart shows that an adult cocaine user would have 5770 pg/mg (aka 5.77 ng/mg) of cocaine in their hair sample if they are in the bottom 10% of test result concentrations.
*Note the units on this chart are in ng/mg so you have to multiply by 1000 to get pg/mg
Basically the level found in Nick's daughter's hair of 5000 pg/mg is a "low" level for an adult cocaine abuser. For a child, this is probably a moderate to high level.
We can actually convert her cocaine concentration to "adult levels" by scaling it upwards by her body surface area (factor ~= 1.83) or by her mass (factor ~= 2.2), and that would put her hair concentration in the 30th percentile of adult users.
So I think it's fair to say this is a very substantial cocaine concentration for a child.
It means she ingested cocaine. The test is definitive if they checked for cocaine metabolites.
The way these hair tests typically work is they use competitive binding ELISA (an antibody) to check for the presence of cocaine and cocaine metabolites in the hair sample.
Then if the first ELISA test is positive, there is a second confirmatory test using a totally different technology called GC/MS or LC/MS.
Usually (but not always) they do two completely separate tests.
These tests are looking for the presence of cocaine and cocaine metabolites. . Cocaine metabolites are produced in your liver only if you have consumed cocaine.
If they found cocaine metabolites, it means she didn't accidentally get cocaine residue on her hair. It means she must have ingested cocaine.
Traces of the cocaine and the liver-produced cocaine metabolites (ie BE, CE, NC) are both deposited into the hair, and that's what is typically detected.
For the cocaine metabolites to be produced cocaine must have been ingested.
Cocaine metabolites that hair tests typically look for are shown in green in the above chart. Cocaine itself is highlighted in red. This chart shows how cocaine is broken down in the human body.
For anyone saying that this could be caused by hair contamination that's unlikely. She definitively ingested cocaine if they detected cocaine metabolites in her hair.
They typically don't call these tests positive unless they detect the drug metabolites.
The main questions are :
* Did the GC/MS test detect cocaine metabolites (CE, BE, NC)?
* Was the cocaine ingestion on purpose or was it accidental?
* How many times was it ingested?
* Were Kayla and Nick aware of it?
The units for hair tests are typically pg/mg. Meaning picograms of drug or drug metabolite per milligram of hair.
Another way to look at this is its the same as parts per billion (ppb).
1 pg/mg = 1 ppb = 1 part cocaine per billion parts hair
---
The test cutoff is 500 pg/mg, meaning any results below this number will be ignored and considered a 'negative'
Nick's daughter's result was over 5000 pg/mg, or ten times the cutoff.
As far as adults go, the magnitude of the result is in the bottom 10% of adult cocaine users. But Nick's daughter also weighs 2.2 times less than an adult.
The following chart shows that an adult cocaine user would have 5770 pg/mg (aka 5.77 ng/mg) of cocaine in their hair sample if they are in the bottom 10% of test result concentrations.
*Note the units on this chart are in ng/mg so you have to multiply by 1000 to get pg/mg
Basically the level found in Nick's daughter's hair of 5000 pg/mg is a "low" level for an adult cocaine abuser. For a child, this is probably a moderate to high level.
We can actually convert her cocaine concentration to "adult levels" by scaling it upwards by her body surface area (factor ~= 1.83) or by her mass (factor ~= 2.2), and that would put her hair concentration in the 30th percentile of adult users.
So I think it's fair to say this is a very substantial cocaine concentration for a child.
It means she ingested cocaine. The test is definitive if they checked for cocaine metabolites.
The way these hair tests typically work is they use competitive binding ELISA (an antibody) to check for the presence of cocaine and cocaine metabolites in the hair sample.
Then if the first ELISA test is positive, there is a second confirmatory test using a totally different technology called GC/MS or LC/MS.
Usually (but not always) they do two completely separate tests.
These tests are looking for the presence of cocaine and cocaine metabolites. . Cocaine metabolites are produced in your liver only if you have consumed cocaine.
If they found cocaine metabolites, it means she didn't accidentally get cocaine residue on her hair. It means she must have ingested cocaine.
Traces of the cocaine and the liver-produced cocaine metabolites (ie BE, CE, NC) are both deposited into the hair, and that's what is typically detected.
For the cocaine metabolites to be produced cocaine must have been ingested.
Cocaine metabolites that hair tests typically look for are shown in green in the above chart. Cocaine itself is highlighted in red. This chart shows how cocaine is broken down in the human body.
For anyone saying that this could be caused by hair contamination that's unlikely. She definitively ingested cocaine if they detected cocaine metabolites in her hair.
They typically don't call these tests positive unless they detect the drug metabolites.
The main questions are :
* Did the GC/MS test detect cocaine metabolites (CE, BE, NC)?
* Was the cocaine ingestion on purpose or was it accidental?
* How many times was it ingested?
* Were Kayla and Nick aware of it?
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