Abstract:
There is evidence that mild to moderrate elevation of total homocysteine due mainly
to vitamin B'2 and folate deficiency or Methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase gene
polymorphism is associated with an increased risk of occlusive vascular disease,
thrombosis and stroke etc. Different methods of assaying total homocysteine (tHcy)
have been reported in the past few decades. However, most of the HPLC methods
reported in determination of tHcy cannot be diretly used under local laboratory
conditions due to many reasons. Therfore, a HPLC method with fluorescence
detection was developed with some modifications of the method described by
Pfeiffer et. at. (1999) using cystamine dihydrochloride as the internal standard for
routime determination oftHcy in plasma under local conditions.