Determination of Vitamin K in Serum Using HPLC with Post-Column Reaction and Fluorescence Detection

Abstract
A new, sensitive and selective detection method for vitamin K1 in human serum is reported. After the chromatographic separation, vitamin K is converted to its hydro-quinone form in a wet-chemical post-column reduction reaction with tetramethylammonium octahydridotriborate. The reaction proceeds in an open tubular knitted reaction coil at elevated temperature. This system, when combined with a two-step multidimensional liquid chromatographic separation, has proven useful for the quantitative determination of serum concentrations of vitamin K1 in normal, healthy individuals.