MEASUREMENT OF SERUM NITRITE NITRATE CONCENTRATIONS USING HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY/

Previous studies have reported increased serum concentrations of nitri te/nitrate - the degradation products of nitric oxide - in Plasmodium vivax malaria and uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum um malaria, In a ll these studies, however, nitrite/nitrate has been measured spectrome trically using Griess reagent which carries major disadvantages in the determination of serum nitrite/nitrate. The method does not allow an exact differentiation of nitrite and biogenic amines that are physiolo gically present in plasma. In the present study we introduce high-perf ormance liquid chromatography as a new, accurate and cost effective me thod for determination of serum nitrite/nitrate levels. Significantly increased nitrate concentrations were found in malaria patients and se rum values remained above normal levels for at least 21 days. It could be shown that our HPLC method is a sensitive and cost-effective metho d for direct determination of nitrite/nitrate in serum samples, which is not influenced by the presence of biogenic amines. (C) 1998 Elsevie r Science B.V.