Abstract: | Determination of the level and absolute configuration of 2‐hydroxyglutaric acid in a patient's urine is a method of diagnosing two metabolic diseases. Such a determination can be done with the aid of NMR spectroscopic methods. In this paper the careful interpretation of 1H and 13C NMR spectra of this metabolite and its lactone measured under conditions used in biomedical assays is reported. The 1H chemical shifts and spin–spin coupling constants were derived using the total lineshape analysis method. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |