Newborn screening of homocystinuria: quantitative analysis of total homocyst(e)ine on dried blood spot by liquid chromatography with fluorimetric detection

Identification of homocystinuric newborns is hindered by the pitfalls of neonatal screening programs. We propose a fluorimetric HPLC method with a rapid pre-analytical step for homocysteine determination from neonatal dried blood spot cards. Homocysteine in blood spots sampled among 2000 healthy newborns on living day 4, averaged 2.92 +/- 2.07 muM (range 0.4-7.5). In eight homocystinuric control children, mean values were 61.71 +/- 52.84 muM (range 18.9-145.7). The method showed a good linearity (r=0.999), precision (RSD<7%) and recovery (95%). The correlation between blood spots and plasma samples was r=0.90. This method has all the essential features for a homocystinuria screening program: an easy and rapid pre-analytical step combined with method linearity and precision. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.