The tetracycline-europium (Tc-Eu) complex is known to show emission at 615 nm. On addition of hydrogen peroxide (HP), a strongly fluorescent complex is formed. In this paper it is reported that the europium fluorescence intensity is increased when urea hydrogen peroxide is added to the tetracycline-europium aqueous solution. It was conceived that this enhancement could be used to determine urea hydrogen peroxide (UHP) levels. This method is simple, practical, and relatively free of interference from coexisting substances, and it can be applied successfully to assess urea peroxide in biological samples, for example, on human whole blood. The values obtained for whole blood agree with the urea concentration variation verified in 50 patients, including 25 pre-dialysis, 15 dialysis subjects and 10 controls. This method is non invasive and can help in the identification of renal and cardiac diseases.
|