Mass fragmentographic determination of vanilmandelic acid, homovanillic acid and isohomovanillic acid in human body fluids.

Vanilmandelic, homovanillic and isohomovanillic acids in body fluids were efficiently isolated by liquid chromatography on an Amberlite XAD-4 column and by organic extraction in a special apparatus. The purified metabolites were converted into their trifluoroacetylhexafluroisopropanol esters and analyzed by mass fragmentography. The working curves of the metabolites were linear from 0.5 to 5 ng injected. The minimum detectable concentrations of all the metabolites were 2 ng/ml for plasma and cerebrospinal fluid, and 120 ng/ml for urine. The metabolite concentrations in plasma, cerebrospinal fluid and urine of normal persons and patients were determined.