Determination of catecholamines in plasma by HPLC and amperometric detection. Comparison with a radioenzymatic method.

The determination of norepinephrine and epinephrine in plasma by HPLC with amperometric detection was modified, giving detection limits of 25 ng/l for norepinephrine and epinephrine, respectively, using 1 ml plasma. In order to achieve this sensitivity, it was necessary to minimize the background noise by modification of instrumentation and specimen handling. Particularly important was the extra purification of the reagents, the application of micro-bore HPLC, the enzymatic cleavage of uric acid and temperature control of the amperometric cell and the amplifier. Comparison of the present method with the radioenzymatic determination of catecholamines resulted in coefficients of correlation of r = 0.924 and 0.919 for norepinephrine and epinephrine, resp. (n = 38). The concentrations of the 38 different samples used for the comparison were in the physiological range.