Studies of Functional Neural Tumors I. Urinary 3-Methoxy-4-Hydroxy-Phenyl-Metabolites

Abstract

1) Ten 3-niethoxy-phenyl-metabolites of dihydroxy-phenylalanine, dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine, and N-methyl-epinephrine were investigated in urine from 10 patients with functional neural tumors. The acids, alcohols and amines were determined with paper chromatography and the amino-acid 3-methoxy-4-hydroxy-phenylalanine with high voltage electrophoresis combined with chromatography. All' these ten above-mentioned metabolites are stable and easy to determine compared with the unstable catechol metabolites themselves.

2) The acids, 3-methoxy-4-hydroxy-man-delic acid and/or 3-methoxy-4-hydroxy-phe-nylacetic acid, are overexcreted by all these 9 cases of functional neural tumors. Very high values of these acids point to longlasting generalized metastases.

3) The alcohols, 3-methoxy-4-hydroxy-phenyl-glycol and 3-methoxy-4-hydroxy-phenyl-ethanol, vary mainly with the acids and with age. The younger children have relatively higher values of these alcohols in proportion to the acids than the older children.

4) The determination of the amino-acid 3-methoxy-4-hydroxy-phenyl-alanine and the 3–0-methylated catecholamines splits these neural tumors into 5 groups and gives a more differentiated picture of each tumor.

5) From these preliminary studies it is possible to classify the neuroblastoma diagnosis into subgroups with predominantly high excretion of dihydroxy-phenyl-alanine-, dopamine-, nor epinephrine-, and epinephrine-metabolites or with combinations of these metabolites.

6) There was no elevation of histamine, serotonine, tyramine, octopamine and sym-pathol or their acid derivatives.