Enzymatic determination of acetate in serum

With 100 microliters sample volume or less acetate can be measured accurately in serum without deproteinization by a coupled enzymatic reaction in a spectrophotometer. The reaction is linear from 250 to 5000 mumol/l acetate with a detection limit of 25 mumol/l. The imprecision from day to day was found to be 2.82% using frozen human pool serum with added sodium acetate. The method was found reliable in routine use, e.g. in man.