Measurement of urinary catecholamines in small samples for mice.

Introduction: Analysis of catecholamines in small samples of urine is difficult and sensitive to stress. Current techniques require pooling of samples or expensive separation by double mass spectrometry. A method for extraction of unconjugated catecholamines in 20μL urine samples has been developed using alumina extraction prior to separation by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and electrochemical detection (ECD).