[Measurement of blood homocysteine by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)].

Hyperhomocysteinemia is an independent risk factor for atherosclerosis and vascular occlusive diseases. Measurements of total homocysteine (Hcy) require an accurate reproducible method. A high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPCL) method for evaluating plasma Hcy after reduction with 2-mercaptoethanol and precolumn derivatization with iodoacetic acid and o-phthaldialdehyde is described. The resultant derivatives were separated on reverse-phase column C18 in the isocratic HPCL mode with fluorimetric detection. The detection limit for Hcy is 0.8 mumol/liter. The concentration of Hcy after overnight fasting was increased significantly (p < 0.02) in the patients in comparison with the control (11.7 +/- 1.1 vs. 8.3 +/- 0.5 mumol/liter). The method can be used for measuring the concentrations of asparaginic acid, glutamic acid, cysteine, asparagine, serine, and glutamine.