Highly sensitive flow injection analysis of glucose and uric acid in serum using an immobilized enzyme column and chemiluminescence

A method for the flow injection analysis of glucose and uric acid in serum using immobilized enzymes in column form and chemiluminescence detection is described. The method is based on the determination of chemiluminescence formed by the reaction of a luminol-ferricyanide mixture with hydrogen peroxide which is produced by the action of the respective oxidases on glucose and uric acid. Glucose or uric acid in serum were determined with 1 microliter of the sample at a speed of 120 samples/h without carryover and at an assay time of approximately 10 s. The immobilized glucose oxidase column measured only 1.0 X 5 mm, and the immobilized uricase column 1.0 X 20 mm. The present method gave perfect linearity of the data up to 4.0 g glucose per liter or 0.10 g uric acid per liter with satisfactory precision, reproducibility, and accurate reaction recoveries. Furthermore, the present method was hardly affected by ascorbic acid, while the peroxidase-linked colorimetric method is usually influenced significantly by ascorbic acid. Both column reactors showed good operational stability for a 2-month period, during which time they were repeatedly used for analyses over 2000 times. The results on glucose and uric acid correlated satisfactorily with those obtained by other well-established methods.