Nonaqueous reversed-phase liquid chromatography and fluorimetry compared for determination of retinol in serum

A new assay for retinol in human serum, based on nonaqueous reversed-phase liquid chromatography, is presented. Sample preparation includes addition of the internal standard, retinyl propionate, deproteinization of 100 microL of serum with acetonitrile, and extraction with hexane. The standard curve is linear up to 2 mg/L. The assay is characterized by excellent sensitivity (detection limit, 15 micrograms/L) and good within-run and between-run precision (CVs of 2.6 and 2.7%, respectively), and results compare favorably with those by fluorimetry. We assayed 135 samples from hospitalized patients by both methods. Although the two sets of values correlated well (r = 0.955) the fluorimetric method occasionally suffers from interferences. In practice, fluorimetry proves valuable as a routine method, while liquid chromatography meets the criteria of a potential reference method.