COBALT AND VITAMIN B12
Elevated urinary cobalt concentrations identified in routine doping controls can originate from vitamin B12 (Publication)
Summary
In 2015, cobalt was added to the World Anti‐Doping Agency’s (WADA’s) Prohibited List, and the use of products resulting in the uptake of pharmacologically relevant amounts of inorganic cobalt has been banned for athletes at all times (in‐ and out‐of‐competition). By contrast, the supplementation of organically bound cobalt is permitted. To date, doping control urine samples are commonly analyzed for total cobalt concentrations by means of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP‐MS). Although no threshold or reporting level has yet been established above which urinary cobalt concentrations are to be considered as an adverse analytical finding, urinary reference concentrations were reported to range between 0.1 and 2 ng/mL.
AUTHORS: Knoop, A., Görgens, C., Geyer, H., & Thevis, M.
SOURCE: dshs-koeln.de/institut-fuer-biochemie
PUBLISHED: April 15, 2020