Knight J A, Haymond R E
Clin Chem. 1977 Nov;23(11):2007-10.
Homovanillic acid is an important metabolite of dopamine, and a high proportion of patients with neuroblastoma excrete increased amounts of it in their urine. When this diagnosis is suspected, both homovanillic acid and vanilmandelic acid should be measured, because such a combined measurement reportedly leads to detection of 95% of cases. Although rapid and reliable chemical methods are available for vanilmandelic acid, the same is not true for homovanillic acid. We report here a colorimetric method for homovanillic acid that reasonably fills this void and that can be used in most clinical laboratories. In addition, we present normal values determined for children of various age groups.
高香草酸是多巴胺的一种重要代谢产物，相当比例的神经母细胞瘤患者尿液中高香草酸排泄量增加。当怀疑有该诊断时，应同时检测高香草酸和香草扁桃酸，因为据报道这种联合检测能发现95%的病例。虽然有快速可靠的化学方法可用于检测香草扁桃酸，但高香草酸却并非如此。我们在此报告一种比色法检测高香草酸，该方法合理地填补了这一空白，且可在大多数临床实验室使用。此外，我们还给出了不同年龄组儿童的正常值。
