An alternative method for the determination of uric acid in serum.

A novel fluorometric method for the determination of uric acid based on the coupled reactions of uric acid with uricase and peroxidase to form highly fluorescent 2,2'dihydroxy-3,3'-dimethoxy-biphenyl-5,5'-diacetic acid is described. The calibration curve was constructed from a series of standard uric acid solutions vs. the corresponding relative fluorescence. It was linear up to 15 mg/dl (0.9 mmol/l). The serum or plasma samples must be deproteinated with (absolute) ethanol before assay and its uric acid content can be obtained from the calibration curve. This method is rather simple, having good precision and accuracy. High level ascorbic acid in the sample falsely elevates uric acid concentration. Comparison of the results obtained on the patient sera with a colorimetric phosphotungstate method and a standard enzymatic spectrophotometric method gave coefficients of correlation of 0.908 and 0.986, respectively.