Abstract:The detection of the levels of urinary catecholamines metabolites, vanillylmandelic acid (VMA) and homovanillic acid (HVA), is an important approach to the early diagnosis of neuroblastoma (NB). The previous measurment of chromatometry, however, was usually affected by many factors as result of an inaccurate findings. This paper aims to study the significance of measuring urinary VMA and HVA levels in children by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in the early diagnosis of NB. Methods Fifty healthy children (Normal control group), 27 children with NB (NB group) and 15 children with ALL (ALL group) were enrolled in this study. The levels of VMA and HVA in random urine were measured by HPLC with the flow phase of pH of 4.3 , 2% methanol and IPRB8 of 3.0 mmol/L and the creatin (Cr) level in random urine was measured by chromatometry. VMA and HVA were expressed as VMA/Cr and HVA/Cr. Results The values of VMA/Cr and HVA/Cr in random urine of the NB group ( 51.60 ± 4.53 and 58.00 ± 3.75 μmol/μmol Cr, respectively) were significantly higher than those of the Normal control group ( 8.42 ± 3.61 and 10.12 ± 3.88 μmol/μmol Cr, respectively) and the ALL group ( 8.78 ± 3.50 and 11.50 ± 2.68 μmol/μmol Cr, respectively) (P< 0.05 ). The values of VMA/Cr and HVA/Cr being higher than 17.5 μmol/μmol Cr and 19.8 μmol/μmol Cr respectively, the levels of those of the Normal control group plus 2 standard deviations, were considered as abnormal. As a result, the diagnosis rate of abnormal VMA or HVA for NB was 96.3% . Conclusions The detection of VMA and HVA levels in random urine by HPLC can provide reliable experimental evidence for early diagnosis and differential diagnosis of NB.
