Identification of Urine Organic Acids for the Detection of Inborn Errors of Metabolism Using Urease and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS)

A patient suspected of an inborn error of metabolism will commonly have urine organic acid analysis performed as part of their workup. The traditional urine organic acid method involves extraction of the acidic fraction from urine samples using an organic solvent, derivatization of extracted compounds, and identification using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Unfortunately, the extraction step results in the loss of many neutral and positively charged compounds, which may be of interest to metabolic physicians and biochemical geneticists. By replacing the traditional extraction step with an enzymatic treatment of the sample with urease, an abundance of organic molecules are available for separation and quantitation by GC-MS. The urease method is a useful adjunct to newborn screening follow-up and it has the additional benefit of being able to identify many classes of biochemical compounds, such as amino acids, acylglycines, neurotransmitters, and carbohydrates. The method below describes the urease treatment, derivatization, and the organic acids, and other biochemical metabolites that can be identified.