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Analysis of epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine in urine samples of hospital patients by micellar liquid chromatography

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Abstract

An analytical method based on micellar liquid chromatography was developed to determine the concentration of three catecholamines (epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine) in urine. The detection of these compounds in urine can be useful to diagnose several diseases, related to stress and sympathoadrenal system dysfunction, using a non-invasive collection procedure. The sample pretreatment was a simple dilution in a micellar solution, filtration, and direct injection, thus avoiding time-consuming and tedious extraction steps. Therefore, there is no need to use an internal standard. The three catecholamines were eluted using a C18 column and a mobile phase of 0.055 M sodium dodecyl sulfate-1.5 % methanol buffered at pH 3.8 running at 1.5 mL/min under isocratic mode in less than 25 min. The detection was performed by amperometry applying a constant potential of +0.5 V. The procedure was validated following the guidelines of the European Medicines Agency in terms of the following: calibration range (0.09–5 μg/mL), linearity (r 2 > 0.9995), limit of detection (0.02 μg/mL), within- and between-run accuracy (−6.5 to +8.4 %) and precision (<10.2 %), dilution integrity, matrix effect, robustness (<8.4), and stability. The obtained values were below those required by the guide. The method was rapid, easy-to-handle, eco-friendly, and safe and provides reliable quantitative data, and is thus useful for routine analysis. The procedure was applied to the analysis of epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine in urine samples from patients of a local hospital.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Project P1.1B2012-36 del Pla de Promoció de la Investigació de la Universitat Jaume I.

Compliance with Ethical Standards

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Conflict of interest

The authors state that there is no financial/commercial conflict of interest.

Ethics and consent to participate

The sampling was anonymously performed with prior informed consent of patients and doctors. We were not informed about the identity or detailed healthy state of the patients to warrant confidentiality. These samples were only used for this study and the unprocessed portion of each sample was destroyed after finishing. The experimental results were not shared with other institutions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Servicio de Análisis Clínicos, Hospital Provincial de Castellón, Av/ Doctor Clara 19, 12002, Castelló, Spain

    Daniel García Ferrer

  2. Servicio de Análisis Clínicos, Hospital Comarcal de Vinaroz, Av/ Gil de Atrocillo s/n, 12500, Vinaroz, Spain

    Aurelio García García

  3. Department of Physical and Analytical Chemistry, Campus del Riu Sec, University Jaume I, Av/Sos Banyat s/n, 12071, Castelló, Spain

    Juan Peris-Vicente & Josep Esteve-Romero

  4. Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Valencia, C/Doctor Moliner 50, 46100, Burjassot, Valencia, Spain

    José Vicente Gimeno-Adelantado

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  1. Daniel García Ferrer
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  3. Juan Peris-Vicente
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Correspondence to Juan Peris-Vicente.

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Ferrer, D.G., García, A.G., Peris-Vicente, J. et al. Analysis of epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine in urine samples of hospital patients by micellar liquid chromatography. Anal Bioanal Chem 407, 9009–9018 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-015-9066-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-015-9066-7

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