The Determination of Uric Acid in Human Saliva by Liquid Chromatography with Electrochemical Detection

A method employing high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection (LC-ED) has been successfully developed for the determination of uric acid in human salvia. The optimal chromatographic conditions were found to comprise a mobile phase containing 5 % methanol, 95 % 50 mM trichloroacetic acid, adjusted to pH 2.7, in conjunction with a Hypersil C18 250 mm x 4.6 mm column at a flow rate of 0.6 mL min-1. Hydrodynamic voltammetric studies were undertaken to optimize the operating potentials required for electrochemical detection. It was found that an applied potential of +1.2 V was optimum for the determination of uric acid. The proposed method was evaluated by carrying out replicate uric acid determinations on spiked and unspiked human saliva samples (%CV = 8.8 %). The data suggest that the method holds promise for clinical applications.