A new method for the determination of free L-carnitine in serum samples based on high field single quantum coherence filtering 1H-NMR spectroscopy.

The rapid and accurate determination of specific metabolites present in biofluids is a very demanding task which is essential in both medicine and chemistry. L-carnitine (3-hydroxy-4-N-trimethylammonium butyrate) is an important metabolite which participates in a series of biological paths and therefore its determination is of diagnostic importance. A single quantum coherence filtering (1)H NMR methodology was used for the accurate and rapid determination of L-carnitine in human serum samples.