The purpose of the study was to reveal erythropoietin (epo) doping. It was recently suggested that the assessment of total haemoglobin mass (tHb) by means of the carbon monoxide re-breathing technique should be implemented in anti-doping work. Since epo may increase the haemoglobin concentration [Hb] simply by reducing plasma volume we injected eight human subjects with epo for 15 weeks and directly tested the feasibility hereof. Epo treatment increased [Hb] in all subjects at all time points (range 3.8-18.8%). In approximately half the subjects this was mainly the consequence of an increased tHb, but in the remaining subjects the change was the result of a decrease in the plasma volume. After the initial epo "boosting" period the assessment of tHb could not detect epo injections in 50% of the subjects in the remaining "maintenance" period. In our opinion the variability observed over time when assessing tHb is not justifiable in an anti-doping setting.
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