Athlete biological passport

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An athlete biological passport is an individual electronic record for professional athletes, in which profiles of biological markers of doping and results of doping tests are collated over a period of time. Doping violations can be detected by noting variances from an athlete's established levels outside permissible limits, rather than testing for and identifying illegal substances.^[1]

Although the terminology athlete passport is recent, the use of biological markers of doping has a long history in anti-doping. Maybe the first marker of doping that tries to detect a prohibited substance not based on its presence in urine or blood but instead the induced deviations in biological parameters is the testosterone over epitestosterone ratio (T/E). The T/E has been used by sports authorities since the beginning of the 1980s to detect anabolic steroids in urine samples. A decade later, in 1997, markers of blood doping were introduced by some international federations, such as the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and the Federation Internationale de Ski, to deter the abuse of recombinant erythropoietin that was undetectable by direct means at that time.

In 2002 the concept of using biological markers to detect doping became known by the term "athlete passport". The advantages were listed in a science journal paper.^[2] and the terminology adopted by the World Anti-Doping agency.^[3]

While a new drug test must be developed and validated for each new drug, the advantage of the athlete passport is that it is based on the natural stability of the physiology of the human being. There can be a lag of between the availability of a new drug and the development of an effective test. In contrast, the physiology of the human being remains the same through several generations and all biomarkers developed today in the athlete passport will remain valid for at least several decades. For example, the blood module of the passport is already sensitive today to any new future form of recombinant erythropoietin, as well as to any form of gene doping that will enhance oxygen transfer to the muscles. Also, while a negative drug test does not necessarily mean that the athlete did not dope, the athlete can present their passport at the beginning of a competition to attest that they will compete in their natural, unaltered condition.

The athlete passport was widely covered in the media when the blood module was established at the beginning of the 2008 racing season by the world cycling federation, the UCI.^[4] In May 2008 the UCI revealed that 23 riders were under suspicion of doping following the first phase of blood tests conducted under the new biological passport.^[5]

The blood module of the athlete passport aims to detect any form of blood doping, the steroid module any form of doping with anabolic steroid and the endocrine module any modification of the growth hormone/IGF-1 axis. Each of these modules are however at different steps of development, validation and application in sports.