Ascorbate in plasma as measured by liquid chromatography and by dichlorophenolindophenol colorimetry.

Ascorbic acid was measured in 125 plasma samples by an automated colorimetric method involving dichlorophenolindophenol and by a "high-performance" liquid-chromatographic procedure with electrochemical detection. The two methods gave comparable results for samples with ascorbate concentrations of 1 to 20 mg/L (r = 0.97). We also measured the amount of total ascorbate (ascorbic acid + dehydroascorbic acid) in the same samples by a liquid-chromatographic procedure with precolumn derivitization of ascorbic acid. We confirmed that plasma contains little dehydroascorbic acid.