COMPARISON BETWEEN GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY AND ELISA TEST TO QUANTIFY CAFFEINE IN THE HORSE PLASMA.

Abstract

Being less expensive and more practical, ELISA test has been used to quantify several drugs in antidoping testing protocols. Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant and it gains importance in the horse industry because it is considered a prohibited substance by many regulatory organs of equine sports. The aim of this study was to compare ELISA test and gas chromatography (GC) to quantify caffeine in the plasma of horses. Animals received 2 mg/Kg of caffeine IV. The samples were collected at the times 0h, 0.25h, 0.5h, 1h, 2h, 4h, 6h, 8h, 12h, 24h, 48h and 72h pos-caffeine. Both methods showed maximum concentration at 0.25h. Pearson´s correlation coefficient between the two methods was r = 0.50, meaning poor correlation. The regression