Quantification of urinary allantoin by capillary zone electrophoresis during recombinant urate oxydase (rasburicase) therapy

OBJECTIVES: Rasburicase (Fasturtec) is used to prevent or treat hyperuricemia associated with chemotherapy. We developed a capillary zone electrophoresis method to measure urinary allantoin, the degradation product of uric acid by rasburicase. DESIGN AND METHODS: Electrophoresis was performed using a P/ACE 5500 system (Beckman) with a fused silica capillary tube and a UV-visible detector set at 214 nm. Urine samples from 10 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma were analyzed to validate the technique. RESULTS: Using a sodium tetraborate running buffer, urinary allantoin was separated from related compounds and internal standard in less than 30 min. The method was linear up to 1.25 g/L (quantification limit: 30 mg/L); precision was below 10%. The total amount of allantoin excreted in patients treated by rasburicase ranged from 1.5 g to 7.9 g/4 days. CONCLUSION: This CZE assay is a simple, rapid and reproducible method to measure allantoin in urine. Different elimination profiles have been found in patients treated with rasburicase.