DETERMINATION OF N-G,N-G-DIMETHYLARGININE IN HUMAN PLASMA BY HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY

N-G,N-G-Dimethylarginine (asymmetric dimethylarginine, ADMA) can be di rectly separated and measured from deproteinized human plasma using o- phthaldialdehyde-mercaptoethanol (OPA reagent) as a fluorogenic reagen t by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. The mean r ecovery of ADMA was over 96% and the inter- and intra-assay coefficien ts of variation of amounts were lower than 3.80% and those of retentio n time were below 0.37% for five runs. The detection limit of the assa y is 1 pmol when the signal-to-noise ratio is 3:1. It was observed tha t the concentration of ADMA was significantly elevated in plasma of pa tients with pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH) in contrast to health y pregnant women.