Measurement of porphobilinogen in urine by a simple resin method with use of a surrogate standard.

In this method for urinary porphobilinogen (PBG), urine is added to Bio-Rad AG1-X2 (200-400 mesh) acetate resin under alkaline conditions and mixed. After two water washes, the adsorbed PBG is eluted with acid and reacted with Ehrlich's reagent (p-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde). Quantification is by comparison of the color developed with that of a PBG standard similarly treated or of a calibrated methyl red solution. The precision of assay of PBG at 20 and 50 mumol/L is 1.4% and 0.9% within-batch and 4% and 3.9% between-batch, respectively. The analytical recovery is about 90%, a proportion that appears to be inherent in the resin method. The proposed method (y) agreed well with the method of Mauzerall and Granick (x; J Biol Chem 1956;19:435-46), yielding the regression equation y = 0.957x + 2.9 (r = 0.993, n = 26). Good agreement was achieved with results determined from the PBG and the methyl red standards. The proposed method is inexpensive, simple to perform, and suitable for routine and emergency use.