Determination of Urinary Vanillylmandelic Acid and Acid by High Performance

SATO, Y., HANAI, J., TAKASUGI, N, and TAKEDA, T. Determination of Urinary Vanillylmandelic Acid and Homovanillic Acid by High Performance Liquid Chromatography for Mass Screening of Neuroblastoma. Tohoku J. exp. Med., 1986, 150 (2), 169-174 In order to develop a mass screening method for the early detection of neuroblastoma, we measured urinary vanillylmandelic acid (VMA) and homovanillic acid (HVA) by a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) equipped with an electrochemical detector. Urinary samples were collected on a piece of filter paper and then pre-treated by a simple method. Measurement of VMA and HVA was performed within a short period of time, and by about 80 samples per a day could be analyzed by automatic system. The method described herein proved to be reliable, and we thus recommend it as a useful method for measurement of both VMA and HVA, leading to more accurate detection of neuroblastoma in mass screening test. VMA ; HVA ; HPLC ; neuroblastoma ; mass screening