Capillary gas-chromatographic determination of urinary homovanillic acid and vanillylmandelic acid.

This relatively simple, rapid method for quantification of homovanillic acid (HVA) and vanillylmandelic acid (VMA) involves solvent extraction and capillary gas chromatography. With use of this extraction method, the overall analytical recovery from an aqueous solution is 92.5% for HVA and 79.2% for VMA. 3,4-Dihydroxybenzoic acid is the internal standard. Minimal detectable quantities with this method are less than 1 mg/g of creatinine. Capillary gas chromatography produces a chromatogram that is superior to that of packed-column gas chromatography. We also report quantitative results for urinary HVA and VMA in neuroblastoma patients and in normal individuals, demonstrating the diagnostic value of this method.