A rapid and simple thin-layer chromatographic method for amino acids in blood.

Simple and rapid thin-layer chromatographic methods, using heel or finger-tip blood, are describedthat are suitable for screening for inborn errors of amino acid metabolism. Serum is chromatographed without deproteinizing. A variation of this method utilizes blood impregnated on paper discs for chromatography. These methods are much faster, more sensitive, and provide better resolutionof amino acids than paper chromatography. Because untreated serumor blood-impregnated discs are placed directly on thin-layer chromatograms,these methodsrequire considerablylessworking time than other thin-layer chromatographic methods.