A high-speed liquid-chromatographic method for measuring urinary porphyrins.

We describe a rapid quantitative and qualitative "high-performance" liquid-chromatographic (HPLC) method for measuring porphyrins in urine. Direct injection of acidified, filtered urine onto a 3-micron (particle size) 3-cm-long reversed-phase column fully resolves uroporphyrin, hepta-, hexa-, and pentacarboxylic acid porphyrins, and coproporphyrin. Instrument response is linearly related to concentration over the range 25 to 300 nmol/L. The method provides data essential for the differential diagnosis of porphyric states, including porphyria variegata and porphyria cutanea tarda. This relatively inexpensive method requires a run time of only 8 min per sample, making it particularly suitable for routine use in the clinical chemistry laboratory.