Analysis of Taurine in Blood Plasma of Epileptic Patients Using an Improved Isocratic HPLC Method for Amino Acids

Abstract

An efficient, reversed-phase HPLC method is described in which 21 derivatized amino acids were isocratically separated in less than 90 minutes. An internal standard was used to improve precision and accuracy. The method, which separated taurine from α-, β-, and γ-aminobutyric acids, was used to quantify taurine levels in 83 blood plasma samples. A statistical comparison was made between taurine levels found in the plasma of epileptic and non-epileptic children.