Three‐phase solvent bar liquid‐phase microextraction combined with high‐performance liquid chromatography to determine sarcosine in human urine.

Abstract: Sarcosine is a potential prostate cancer marker. In this study, we developed a method of three‐phase solvent bar liquid‐phase microextraction combined with high‐performance liquid chromatography to determine sarcosine after derivatization with 4‐dimethylarminoazobenzene‐4‐sulfonyl chloride from human urine. The effects of different extraction conditions on extraction efficiency were investigated and optimized. Under optimum experimental conditions, a calibration graph exhibited linearity over the range of 0.05–25 μmol/L with a correlation coefficient (r2) of 0.9990. The enrichment factor was 168, and the detection limit was 0.02 μmol/L. The method was successfully used to analyze sarcosine in human urine and non‐invasive detection, and good spiked recoveries ranging from 90.5 to 93.6% were obtained. The proposed method exhibited high sensitivity, high enrichment factor, good precision, and a simple setup. It may contribute to the early accurate diagnosis and the progression monitoring of prostatic carcinoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]