Liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry of plasma glucose and secreted glucuronate for metabolic studies in humans.

Negative ion thermospray liquid chromatographic/mass spectrometric methods have been developed for the determination of isotopic enrichments for glucose and acetaminophen-uridine diphosphate glucuronate from (1-2H1)glucose, (1-2H1)galactose and (2-13C)acetate in humans. The error of estimate ranged from below 1% to 5%. The advantages of the method include fast analysis (up to 35 per hour), eased sample preparation, good precision, sensitivity comparable with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and better than with isotope ratio mass spectrometry.