Determination of debrisoquine metabolic ratio from hourly urine collections in healthy volunteers.

The possibility of simplifying the regimen for the collection of urine samples in the determination of the debrisoquine metabolic ratio (DMR) was explored in 15 normal subjects. In the extensive metaboliser subgroup (EM; n = 11), there was a close correlation between the DMR as determined by an 8 h urine collection and the debrisoquine/4-hydroxydebrisoquine ratio (D/4-OHD) in the hourly samples (excluding the first hour). In the poor metabolisers (PM; n = 4) the phenotype could be identified, but it was not possible to estimate the DMR reliably.