Measurement of plasma vanillylmandelic acid by liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection

A liquid chromatographic method with electrochemical detection is described for measuring plasma 3-methoxy-4-hydroxymandelic acid (VMA). Plasma is deproteinized by gel filtration and VMA is extracted into ethyl acetate, which is evaporated. VMA is oxidized to vanillin, which is purified by toluene extraction and quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography. The recovery of VMA through the entire procedure is 52 +/- 10% (mean +/- S.D., n = 19). The plasma VMA concentration in healthy young volunteers varies between 4.39 and 14.6 ng/ml, a range that is in excellent agreement with data obtained with mass fragmentography.