Determination of carbohydrates in urine by high-performance liquid chromatography and optical activity detection

Improvements in a detector for liquid chromatography based on optical activity of the components have led to a detectability of 100 ng. This allows the simultaneous determination of six naturally occurring carbohydrates in 100-microliters samples of human urine, which is injected directly except for a simple deionization step. The reproducibility and reliability of this method should allow better insight into the relation between urinary sugars and physiological conditions.