Simple liquid-chromatographic measurement of vanillylmandelic acid and homovanillic acid in urine on filter paper for mass screening of neuroblastoma in infants.

We describe a simple and rapid method for measuring catecholamine metabolites in urine collected on filter paper. By this method, "high-performance" liquid chromatography, urinary vanillylmandelic acid and homovanillic acid can be measured within 15 min after being eluted from filter paper treated with tartrate buffer. One hundred urine samples can be pretreated within 2 h and 100-120 samples analyzed at 18-min intervals overnight in two chromatographic systems. Moreover, urinary creatinine also can be measured rapidly because of the use of microtiter plates. We applied this method in a mass screening program for early detection of neuroblastoma in infants. Between April 1986 and March 1987, two patients with neuroblastoma were detected. In all, neuroblastoma has been detected in 17 of 88,887 infants so examined since April 1981.