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What Happens at the First Check™ Laboratory
When you send your First Check™ Home
Drug Test sample to First Check for further analysis, it comes to
the First Check Lab, a state-of-the-art test laboratory. The lab is
dedicated to accurately and confidentially analyzing the results of
the urine drug test samples it receives from consumers and
institutions across the United States. Using the most sophisticated
equipment and technology available and staffed by toxicology
professionals, the First Check Lab provides the most accurate
possible drug test results and delivers answers with absolute
discretion.
How the Lab Analyzes Drug Test Urine
Samples
- Every day, the First Check Lab processes over
70,000 urine specimens.
- Each First Check™ Home Drug Test sample the lab
receives is sorted by test type and its nine digit confidential
confirmation number is recorded in the lab’s Automated Results
Program. Once tests have been processed, results are made
confidentially available 24 hours a day, seven days a week by phone
or online through this Automated Results Program.
- Once First Check samples are organized and
documented, lab technicians use a sophisticated instrument such as
Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry or GC/MS for short to test the
samples. This technology employs two different methods of chemical
analysis to identify and measure drug substances present in the
urine sample. GC/MS is considered to be the gold standard in
laboratory testing for most drugs.
- The Gas Chromatography (GC) portion of the
instrument separates the complicated chemical mixture found in the
urine sample into pure chemicals based on the speed at which the
chemicals turn into a gas. Some drug chemicals (usually smaller
molecules) turn into gas more quickly than other chemicals (those
made of larger molecules).
- Next, the Mass Spectrometer (MS) portion of the
instrument identifies specific drug chemicals based on their
structure, determining the molecular weight of the chemicals
identified during the Gas Chromatography process. An ion source
bombards the urine sample’s molecules with electrons, breaking them
apart and turning them into positively charged ions. These ions are
passed through an electromagnetic filter which sorts the particles
based on their molecular weight. A detector counts the number of
ions with each specific mass and feeds this data into a
computer.
- The result of the GC/MS process is a detailed
report of the chemicals found in the urine sample, even listing the
number of nanograms of each compound present in the
sample.
- All negative test showing no drugs present are
entered into the Automated
Results Program.
- All positive test results showing the presence
of drugs are sent to the First Check Lab’s Chief Toxicologist for
review, after which they are also entered into the Automated
Results Program.
- Positive samples are reported with a nanogram
per milliliter (ng/ml) level. This level is not available through
the Automated Results Program, but First Check customers may call
1-888-788-5716 speak with a First Check Customer Service
Representative, who will disclose these levels.
- The nanogram level can not tell you how much of
a drug was used nor will it indicate a time frame as to when a drug
was used. The only time a nanogram level may be helpful is to
monitor a chronic or everyday user of marijuana as a way to tell
when the drug is
leaving the system.
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