Fluorimetric enzymatic flow-injection determination of bile acids in human serum

Summary A fast, simple and convenient method for the individual and total determination of bile acids based on the enzymatic oxidation of the analytes and the fluorimetric measurement of a reaction product (the reduced form of the coenzyme, NADH) is proposed. The method allows the determination of the analytes (taurocholic, chenocholic, glycocholic and chenodesoxycholic acid) over the range of 0.3–10.0 g ml^–1, with an r.s.d. smaller than 3.0% in each case. It was applied to the determination of total bile acids in human serum. The simplicity of the method makes it useful for screening clinical samples in order to avoid implementing chromatographic processes on samples with analyte overall contents clearly below pathological limits.