LASER-INDUCED RESONANCE ENERGY-TRANSFER - A NOVEL-APPROACH TOWARDS ACHIEVING HIGH-SENSITIVITY IN CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS .1. CLINICAL DIAGNOSTIC APPLICATION

Most of the procedures currently performed by capillary zone electroph oresis (CZE) with laser induced fluorescence detection requires prior derivatization. This increases cost, the turn-around-time and chances of extraneous contaminations. CZE with laser induced resonance energy transfer is demonstrated as a viable alternative for detecting non-flu orescent compounds with no prior derivatization. The feasibility of th is approach is demonstrated by separating and directly detecting salic ylic acid (2,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid), gentisic acid (o-methoxybenzoic acid), salicyluric acid (o-hydroxyhippuric acid) and 4-aminosalicylic acid in urine. The detection of salicylate in serum is also shown. Th e method is highly sensitive with detection limits in the 1 . 10(-7) M range. Importantly it requires no prior preconcentration or sample pr eparation and can be used with complex sample matrices such as serum a nd urine.