title: [Simultaneous determination of catecholamine levels in plasma by high performance liquid chromatography].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To use a high performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection to simultaneously determine catecholamine(CA) levels in plasma and to diagnose chromaffin cell tumors and neuroblastoma.
  
  
  METHODS
  The plasma samples after flowing extraction by ion-moderated partition were determined with electrochemical method to detect CA levels in plasma; the lowest detective limit, the precision, recovery, sensitivity of CA levels were tested and a reference range was established based on the respective data of 18 healthy persons.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The recovery rates of epinephrine and norepinephrine were 86.2% and 90.5%. The method of testing epinephrine was linear at the range of 0.2 to 10.6 nmol.L-1 with 0.05 nmol.L-1 of the lowest detective limit. The intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation were lower than 10.7% and 11.1%, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The method is simple, accurate, sensible in the clinical diagnosis of CA levels.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Laboratory, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410008, China.
authors.forename: G H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Zeng
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002395:Catecholamines / Q000097:blood*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D004298:Dopamine / Q000097:blood; D004837:Epinephrine / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D009638:Norepinephrine / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D002395:Catecholamines; D004298:Dopamine; D009638:Norepinephrine; D004837:Epinephrine