Determination of serum retinol by HPLC applied to assess the vitamin A status of Vietnamese children

ABSTRACT

The analysis using HPLC method to determine serum retinol (vitamin A) concentrations has been developed in Micronutrient Laboratory - the National Institute of Nutrition, to assess the subclinical vitamin A deficiency in Vietnam. This method with high sensibility, high precision and good accuracy (CV% intraassay [3.5 + 5] and inter assay [4.8 + 1.7]), can detect very low serum retinol levels, and recognized by the international system on vitamin A - quality control. Applying to assess the vitamin A status of the children <5 year old in the Red River Delta and the North Mountainous Areas, the result showed that 4.2% and 21.9% of the subjects were suffered from sub-clinical vitamin A deficiency, respectively. The rate of low retinol levels in infants < 6 month olds was 32.7%, significantly higher than other groups.