Effects of intravenous infusion of glycerol on blood parameters and urinary glycerol concentrations

In sports, the oral intake and intravenous administration of glycerol as a potential masking agent have been prohibited. The effect of glycerol on blood parameters was investigated by comparing the intravenous administration of glycerol (20g/200mL) with that of an electrolyte (8g glucose/200mL) as a comparator (n=7, fixed-dose-rate i.v. infusion, 200mL in 1h). This study was also designed to evaluate whether the urinary concentrations reached the positivity threshold after the intravenous infusion of glycerol. Significant decreases of the haemoglobin (HGB, g/dL), haematocrit (HCT, %) and OFF-h Score (OFF-score) values were observed after the infusion of glycerol (P<0.05 at 1-6h). The differences in the HGB, HCT and OFF-score between pre- and post-administration were -0.49±0.23g/dL (2h), -1.54±0.73% (2h) and -3.89±3.66 (2h), respectively. Glycerol infusion significantly increased the plasma volume by 12.1% (1h), 6.3% (2h) and 5.7% (3h) compared with the initial values. The infusion of the comparator also increased the plasma volume by 9.6% (1h), 5.8% (2h) and 4.9% (3h) compared with the values before infusion. There were no significant differences in the change of the plasma volume between the intravenous infusions of glycerol and the glucose-based electrolyte (as the comparator) (P≥0.05). This finding might indicate that glycerol itself only exhibited limited effects on the expansion of plasma. After administration of glycerol, the urinary glycerol concentrations increased from 0.0013±0.0004mg/mL to 6.86±2.86mg/mL at 1h and 6.45±3.08mg/mL at 2h. The intravenous infusion of glycerol can most likely be detected using the current urine analysis; however, the dependence of the concentration of urinary glycerol on the urine volume should be considered.