Reference intervals for urinary catecholamines and metabolites from birth to adulthood.
OBJECTIVE
To establish reference intervals for urinary excretion of biogenic amines from birth to adulthood.


METHODS
865 outpatients were categorized into nine groups ranging from birthday to 25 years. Free catecholamines, total metanephrines, vanillylmandelic and homovanillic acids were determined in urine samples by HPLC with amperometric detection.


RESULTS
The ratio of each analyte-to-creatinine declined gradually from birth to 15-18 years reaching adults values. No difference was observed by sex except a lower excretion of epinephrine and metanephrine in girls than in boys below 1 year.


CONCLUSIONS
Our data provide age-appropriate reference ranges for the diagnosis of tumors from neural crest in children.
Pussard
Eric
E
Service de Génétique Moléculaire, Pharmacogénétique et Hormonologie, Hôpital de Bicêtre, 78 rue du Général Leclerc, Le Kremlin Bicêtre, France. eric.pussard@bct.aphp.fr
Neveux
Michel
M
Guigueno
Nelly
N
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002395:Catecholamines / Q000592:standards / Q000652:urine; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D004298:Dopamine / Q000652:urine; D005260:Female; D006719:Homovanillic Acid / Q000652:urine; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008676:Metanephrine / Q000652:urine; D009647:Normetanephrine / Q000652:urine; D012016:Reference Values; D012737:Sex Factors; D014642:Vanilmandelic Acid / Q000652:urine
D002395:Catecholamines; D009647:Normetanephrine; D008676:Metanephrine; D014642:Vanilmandelic Acid; D004298:Dopamine; D006719:Homovanillic Acid