Excretion of catecholamine catabolites by normal children.

Abstract

Abstract The excretions of vanillylmandelic acid, normetanephrine and metanephrine, and homovanillic acid in 140 normal children were determined and found to be a function of age. Standard deviation of the excretion of each of the catabolites decreases with age. Expression of the results in terms of micrograms of catecholamine catabolite per milligram of creatinine was selected as the method of greatest ease with equal reliability to alternate techniques. Knowledge of normal levels of excretion and specificity of assay procedures were found to be essential for the use of such measurements for differentiating normal children from those with tumors of the neural crest.