Abstract
Acylcarnitine analysis using tandem mass spectrometry has become a powerful tool in the investigation of pediatric patients presenting with clinical signs and symptoms suggestive of fatty acid oxidation defects. These signs are diverse and include failure to thrive, feeding difficulties, and cardiomyopathy. Because the signs and symptoms are nonspecific, the identification of acylcarnitines characteristic of these inherited diseases is necessary for diagnosis. We describe a method for the analysis of acylcarnitines in plasma or serum samples using electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Jellum E. (1977) Profiling of human body fluids in healthy and diseased states using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, with special reference to organic acids. J Chromato 143, 427–472.
Valle D, Beaudet AL, Vogelstein B, Kinzler K, Antonarakis S, Ballabio A, eds. (2007) The online metabolic and molecular bases of inherited disease – Chapter 101. McGraw-Hill: New York.
Blau N, Duran M, Blaskovics ME, Gibson KM (eds.). (2003) Physician’s guide to the laboratory diagnosis of metabolic diseases – 2nd edition. Springer-Verlag: Berlin.
Scriver CR, Beaudet AL, Sly WS, Valle D (eds). (2001) The metabolic and molecular bases of inherited disease, 8th edition – Chapter 101. McGraw-Hill medical publishing division: New York.
Campoy C, Bayes R, Peinado JM, Rivero M, Lopez C, Molina-Font JA. (1998) Evaluation of carnitine nutritional status in full-term newborn infants. Early Hum Dev 53(Suppl), S149–S164.
Buchta R, Nyhan WL, Broock R, Schragg P. (1993) Carnitine in adolescents. J Adolesc Health 14(6), 440–441.
Gloggler A, Bulla M, Puchstein C, Gulotta F, Furst P. (1988) Plasma and muscle carnitine in healthy and hemodialyzed children. Child Nephrol Urol 9(5), 277–282.
Chace DH, Kalas AT, Naylor EW. (2003) Use of tandem mass spectrometry for multianalyte screening of dried blood specimens from newborns. Clin. Chem 49(11), 1797–1817.
Zytkovicz TH, Fitzgerald EF, et al. (2001) Tandem mass spectrometric analysis for amino, organic and fatty acid disorders in newborn dried blood spots: A Two-year summary from the New England newborn screening program. Clin Chem 47(11), 1945–1955.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to acknowledge the excellent work of Mr. Lawrence Fisher, resource and development laboratory technologist at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, who developed the method on other mass spectrometry platforms.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Humana Press, a part of Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Lepage, N., Aucoin, S. (2010). Measurement of Plasma/Serum Acylcarnitines Using Tandem Mass Spectrometry. In: Garg, U., Hammett-Stabler, C. (eds) Clinical Applications of Mass Spectrometry. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 603. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60761-459-3_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60761-459-3_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-1-60761-458-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-60761-459-3
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols