Determination of galactose in human plasma by HPLC with electrochemical detection

Galactose in plasma from patients with hepatic diseases who had undergone low level galactose infusion was determined by using HPLC with electrochemical detection (LCEC). Agreement between galactose concentration determined by the LCEC and a fluorometric method was remarkably good at moderate levels of galactose in plasma. However, the fluorometric method is not suitable for samples containing very small amounts of galactose (blood from hepatic veins) and even for a few samples at moderate galactose content (blood from peripheral veins), suggesting the presence of an endogenous interference. There was no interference for the quantitation of galactose by the LCEC method, by virtue both of the specificity involved in the electrochemical detection and the separation by liquid chromatography. The detection limit of the LCEC method was 0.4 mg galactose/L blood.