Lance Armstrong and EPO..?

[WVUPharm2007]

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So I'm watching the news and I hear about Lance Armstrong being lambasted by the French for "abusing" EPO (I assume they mean synthetic erythropoietin.) Ok, great.

Here's my question, how the hell can you tell someone is abusing EPO? It's endogenously made renally.

So you think, hey, maybe he had a higher blood concentration than the average joe, that's how they could tell. But wouldn't an athlete that has an unreal oxygen use ratio-thingy of 3 times normal probably have more erythrpoietin than everyone else because it is needed for hemoglobin synthesis in order to facilitate said ungodly oxygen use?

Can somebody explain this to me - how can they tell he was injecting himself with exogenous hormone?

 

[ZpackSux]

He received Epogen treatment after chemo due to his bout with cancer. The theory is that because of his extensive Epogen treatment due to chemo induced anemia, he was able to raise his baseline H/H much higher than a normal person and your typical athelete. I somewhat believe this.

His wins will always have some sort of question mark to it.

 

[eunos]

EPO is a hormone naturally produced by the kidneys in response to low oxygen supply and acts as a signal for bone marrow to increase production of RBC to respond to oxygen needs. This "need" occurs in cyclist when they are anemic or have been training at high altitude and placing themselves in oxygen depravation states. Synthetic EPO such as Epogen and Procrit have been shown to increase HCT (hematocrit) level by 3-4 % over 3-4 weeks of use. The danger of higher HCT level can cause the overall viscosity to increase thus decrease flow and eventually leading to clots and death.
The governing body of cycling (UCI) has established an HCT level of 50% as normal and a reticulocyte level of 2.4% as normal. Cyclist who test above this level are then tested further for EPO. Since synthetic EPO is cleared from the body in 6-12 hours, the test that the French have done on samples such as Lance Armstrong involve specific biomechanical properties of synthetic EPO using gel electrophoresis. This is an indirect test for synthetic EPO and not a specific EPO test.
From the articles I've seen concerning Lance, these test were performed on his "B" urine sample and are not conclusive !!!!
To take a step backwards, cyclist are subjected to a urine collection, which are then split into "A" and "B" batch. They "A" batch are tested and if negative, then they are declared negative. The "B" batch only serves to support the "A" sample in the event that the "A" sample is positive (HCT >50% and reticulocyte level >2.4%) then " B" is tested for specific products such as synthetic EPO. Since none of Lance's "A" samples tested positive, at the time there was no need for a "B" sample testing.
Your own final conclusions would have to made from here regarding Lance.
What is really scarry are the talks of synthetic Hematocrit that are cleared from the body within 6-8 hours and undetectable by current testing standards as the next performance enhancement doping technique.
😱

 

[pharmaz88]

Who cares? ...this is the French whining, remember?

 

[Caverject]

Who cares? ...this is the French whining, remember?

so? we get a few MWU-Glenndale whiners on this board and we still listen! 😉

 

[bananaface]

so? we get a few MWU-Glenndale whiners on this board and we still listen! 😉

And, some cranky young farts from South!

 

[pharmaz88]

so? we get a few MWU-Glenndale whiners on this board and we still listen! 😉

True, but unlike the French, the MWU whiners practice good hygiene.

😀

 

[luckyPharmD.stu]

Looks like all famous athletes have something in common; they will be stuck in a situation like Armstrong, one way or the other. That's why I only root for players back in time who never even heard of these illegal substances; Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, previous tour de France winners, etc. But I highly doubt that Armstrong intentionally used EPO...kinda reminds me of Rafael Palmeiro...

 

[eunos]

Looks like all famous athletes have something in common; they will be stuck in a situation like Armstrong, one way or the other. That's why I only root for players back in time who never even heard of these illegal substances; Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, previous tour de France winners, etc. But I highly doubt that Armstrong intentionally used EPO...kinda reminds me of Rafael Palmeiro...

Actually previous TDF winners have admitted to using amphetamines to keep them awake and alert to complete the race.I think that performance enhancement has always been explored throught the ages in all sports but only the last 20 years has modern pharmaceuticals taken sports to the next level.

 

[gablet]

He received Epogen treatment after chemo due to his bout with cancer. The theory is that because of his extensive Epogen treatment due to chemo induced anemia, he was able to raise his baseline H/H much higher than a normal person and your typical athelete. I somewhat believe this.

His wins will always have some sort of question mark to it.

The only mark that is next to his wins is an explanation mark! Take a look at his training schedule and then compare it to any other rider on the tour. Lance trains harder and smarter than all other riders!

 

[Sosumi]

So weird. I just came back from a leadership retreat the weekend before this story broke out. One of the speakers is a pharmacy director. His speech was about leadership and analogies to Lance Armstrong's heart, inner and outer core, etc. I've learned so much about Armstrong's reasons for doing so well including from within and his strategy during the long grueling Tour de France. He explained in great detail how Lance, his two coaches, and his team members strategize throughout the race protecting him. I never knew how much planning, strategizing, training, and then execution is required to predict and win the race for him that it basically came down to a science. I think a lot of the sour grapes people just don't like how methodical Lance has made the race, taking away the romanticism of it.