Simultaneous liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometric determination of urinary free metanephrines and catecholamines, with comparisons of free and deconjugated metabolites

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Mirko Peitzsch - , Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden (Author)
  • Daniela Pelzel - , University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden, Institute for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (Author)
  • Stephan Glöckner - , University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden, Institute for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (Author)
  • Aleksander Prejbisz - , Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski Institute of Cardiology (Author)
  • Martin Fassnacht - , University of Würzburg, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (Author)
  • Felix Beuschlein - , Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (Author)
  • Andrzej Januszewicz - , Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski Institute of Cardiology (Author)
  • Gabriele Siegert - , University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden, Institute for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (Author)
  • Graeme Eisenhofer - , Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine III, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden (Author)

Abstract

Objective: We introduce a novel liquid chromatographic tandem-mass spectrometric method for simultaneous measurements of urinary catecholamines and their free O-methylated metabolites, which we compare to the deconjugated metabolites. Methods: Method performance was validated for recovery, linearity, precision and accuracy, analyte stability, ion suppression and carry over. Results from 53 patients with and 138 volunteers without pheochromocytoma were compared. Results: Analyte recoveries ranged from 60 to 96% and intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation from 2.7 to 13.2%. The method showed excellent linearity over 3 orders of magnitude with analytical sensitivity sufficient to measure to 1.2. nmol/L. Free O-methylated metabolites were excreted at less than 20% the rates of the deconjugated metabolites, but were easily measureable. Increases in urinary normetanephrine in pheochromocytoma patients relative to volunteers were higher for free than deconjugated metabolites and higher for both than for norepinephrine (10 vs 5.5 vs 3.7 fold increases). In contrast, relative increases in urinary free versus deconjugated metanephrine (2.7 and 3.2) and methoxytyramine (2.1 and 1.9) did not differ, but for methoxytyramine were larger than for dopamine (1.2). Conclusion: Measurements of urinary catecholamines and their free O-methylated metabolites by our method provide potential advantages over urinary deconjugated metanephrines for diagnosis of pheochromocytoma.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)50-58
Number of pages9
JournalClinica chimica acta
Volume418
Publication statusPublished - 15 Mar 2013
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 23313054

Keywords

Keywords

  • Catecholamines, LC-MS/MS, Metanephrines, Paraganglioma, Pheochromocytoma, Urine