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Quantitation of urinary methylmalonic acid by gas chromatography mass spectrometry and its clinical applications
Author(s) -
Ho ChaoHung,
Chang HuiChin,
Yeh SheauFarn
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
european journal of haematology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1600-0609
pISSN - 0902-4441
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0609.1987.tb01429.x
Subject(s) - cobalamin , urine , methylmalonic acid , chemistry , chromatography , urinary system , mass spectrometry , gas chromatography–mass spectrometry , medicine , vitamin b12 , biochemistry
Urine methylmalonic acid (MMA) concentrations were detected in 79 Chinese patients by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS), using a selected ion monitoring program. 10 of the 79 patients were found to have cobalamin deficiency. Their urine MMA amounts were all elevated with a mean value 1376 ng/μl (11.66 mmol/l), ranging from 40.46 to 3900 ng/μl (0.34‐33.05 mmol/l). The remaining 69 cases were found to be unrelated to cobalamin deficiency. Their mean urine MMA was 3.62 ng/μl (30.0 μmol/l), ranging from 0–17.47 ng/μl (0–148.0 μmol/l). In this study, we found that urine MMA detected by GC/MS was a simple, rapid, convenient, specific and sensitive method for the diagnosis of cobalamin deficiency. The urine MMA concentrations in cases not due to cobalamin deficiency would not exceed 20 ng/μl (169.5 μmol/l), whereas in cobalamin deficiency the urine MMA levels always exceeded 20 ng/μl, or were even much higher. No overlapping of the results of urine MMA between these 2 groups of patients could be seen in our study. Detection of urine MMA is useful in the demonstration or exclusion of cobalamin deficiency in any suspect patients.