An UPLC-MSMS method to measure plasma homocysteine concentration.

Homocysteine (Hcy) is monitored in a growing number of diseases and requires a rapid and reliable method to measure its concentration in routine practice. We validated a new mass spectrometry method to measure plasma Hcy concentration and to determinate our own targeted concentrations according to COFRAC (French accreditation committee) recommendations. We collected the Hcy concentrations measured in the laboratory from 2014 to 2015 and we compared the values between different clinical groups. We obtained excellent performances of reproducibility, sensitivity (coefficient of variation <10%). We determined new ranges of normal values 12.4 [11.8-13.0] μmol/L. This new method is thus rapid, robust and suitable for its use in routine practice to respond to the increase of prescriptions.