A metabonomic approach identifies human urinary phenylacetylglutamine as a novel marker of interstitial cystitis.

An ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) based metabonomic approach was applied to identify a candidate metabolite with not known to be associated with interstitial cystitis (IC). IC is a chronic clinical syndrome associated with urinary frequency and urgency and/or pelvic pain. The ability to non-invasively diagnose the early stage of IC would be important for improving the patient's quality of life.