Gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric measurement of deuterium-labelled valine,leucine, isoleucine and phenylalanine in the human body

N-Trifluoroacetyl-n-butyl ester derivatives of deuterium-labelled valine, leucine, isoleucine and phenylulanine were analysed by the isotope dilution technique and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Selected ion retrieval and peak-area integration were applied. The conditions adopted gave good separations with a short experimental time and high intensity. Ratios of the total isotopic abundance and metabolic kinetic curves were obtained. The regression coefficient of the standard dilution curve was 0.99 and the relative standard deviation was 0.3%. The stabilities of the amino acid derivatives were also tested.