Evaluation of total plasma homocysteine in Indian newborns using heel-prick samples.
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2006-06-04
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To estimate total plasma homocysteine levels in Indian newborns by modifying the existing SBD-F based High performance liquid chromotography (HPLC) method in order to enable analysis in newborn heel-prick samples and assess the prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia in Indian newborns who are exclusively breast-fed.
METHODS: Reverse-phase HPLC with fluorescence detection for plasma homocysteine estimation and statistical analysis using student t-test.
RESULTS: SBD-F based HPLC method was modified and Bland and Altman analysis was carried out to assess agreement between original and modified methods. The correlation co-efficient was 0.994. The limits of agreement (-5.9, 6.3) were small enough to apply new method in place of the old for heel-prick sample analysis. Total plasma homocysteine analysis was carried out on heel-prick samples of 607 randomly selected newborns (331 males and 276 females). The mean plasma homocysteine estimated by this method in Indian newborns was 6.99 (95% CI: 6.48-7.49) with no appreciable gender effect (P=0.74). Elevated homocysteine levels were observed in 31 males and 21 females.
CONCLUSIONS: Modified HPLC method is validated and can be used for homocysteine analysis on newborn heel-prick samples. Using this method, the prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia in Indian newborns is 8.6%.
Description
Keywords
Citation
Radha Rama Devi A, Naushad SM, Prasad KC. Evaluation of total plasma homocysteine in Indian newborns using heel-prick samples. Indian Journal of Pediatrics. 2006 Jun; 73(6): 503-8