Stability and robustness of blood variables in an antidoping context N. ROBINSON*, P. E. SOTTAS*, T. POTTGIESSER † , Y. O. SCHUMACHER † , M. SAUGY* INTRODUCTION The Athlete’s Biological Passport (ABP) is a new tool in the fight against doping (Malcovati, Pascutto & Cazzola, 2003; Sharpe, Ashenden & Schumacher, 2006; Sottas et al., 2006; Robinson et al., 2007; Sottas, Robinson & Saugy, 2010). It is currently used for the indirect detection of certain doping techniques, such as blood doping (Giraud et al., 2010). Through ABP, the longitudinal development of biological variables is investigated and patterns suspicious of doping are identified. Several variables used in the ABP, such as *Laboratoire Suisse d’Analyse du Dopage, Centre Universitaire Romand de Me ´decine Le ´gale, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, University of Lausanne, Epalinges, Switzerland †Department of Sports Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany Correspondence: Neil Robinson, Laboratoire Suisse d’Analyse du Dopage, Centre Universitaire Romand de Me ´decine Le ´gale, Centre Hospitalier Universi- taire Vaudois, University of Lausanne, Epalinges, Switzerland. Tel.: +41 21 314 73 30; Fax: +41 21 314 70 95; E-mail: neil.robinson@ chuv.ch doi:10.1111/j.1751-553X.2010.01256.x Received 24 February 2010; accepted for publication 5 July 2010 Keywords Doping, passport, blood, stability, guidelines SUMMARY Introduction: With the setting up of the newly Athlete’s Biological Passport antidoping programme, novel guidelines have been intro- duced to guarantee results beyond reproach. We investigated in this context, the effect of storage time on the variables commonly mea- sured for the haematological passport. We also wanted to assess for these variables, the within and between analyzer variations. Methods: Blood samples were obtained from top level male profes- sional cyclists (27 samples for the first part of the study and 102 for the second part) taking part to major stage races. After collec- tion, they were transported under refrigerated conditions (2 °C< T < 12 °C), delivered to the antidoping laboratory, analysed and then stored at approximately 4 °C to conduct analysis at different time points up to 72 h after delivery. A mixed-model procedure was used to determine the stability of the different variables. Results: As expected haemoglobin concentration was not affected by storage and showed stability for at least 72 h. Under the conditions of our investigation, the reticulocytes percentage showed a much bet- ter stability than previous published data (> 48 h) and the technical comparison of the haematology analyzer demonstrated excellent results. Conclusion: In conclusion, our data clearly demonstrate that as long as the World Anti-Doping Agency’s guidelines are followed rigor- ously, all blood results reach the quality level required in the anti- doping context. ORIGINAL ARTICLE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LABORATORY HEMATOLOGY 146 Ó 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Int. Jnl. Lab. Hem. 2011, 33, 146–153 International Journal of Laboratory Hematology The Official journal of the International Society for Laboratory Hematology