Determination of urease activity by thermal conductivity gas chromatography

A rapid, simple and inexpensive procedure for the determination of urease activity by using a thermal conductivity gas chromatography method is presented. The procedure is based on the determination of CO2 released in the urease reaction, and showed low coefficient of variation (c.v. less than 1%) and high sensitivity (detection limit 10(-12) mol). This procedure is also suitable for determination of other decarboxylating enzyme activities.