Abstract
Quantitation of urinary and plasma catecholamines (CA), dopamine (DA), noradrenaline (NA) and adrenaline (A) is important for the diagnosis of pheochromocytoma and neural crest tumors. In 1978 we described [l j a semi-automated method for the fluorimetric determination of DA, NA and A in urine combined with manual methods for the determination of the metabolites of these amines. This sensitive and reproducible analytical technique was subject to interferences by antihypertensive and sympathomimetic drugs. In order (1) to eliminate falsely positive results, through qualitative identification of the interfering compound and, at the same time, (2) to quantitate the catecholamines in urine of patients treated with either methyldopa, or isoprenaline or Idbetalol we introduced high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection (LCEC) in our laboratory procedure. This paper deals with practical aspects of the determination of urinary and plasma CA by fluorimetry and LCEC in practice. In this procedure LCEC is used as an alternative and complementary assay for CA determinations in samples presenting with ‘interfering substances’ and as an external quality control method for the routine semi-automated trihydroxyindole (THI) fluorimetric determination.
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