Spectroscopic methods for determination of catecholamines: A mini-review

Catecholamines are biogenic compounds that perform a variety of vital functions, playing a key physiological role in humans and animals. They are important markers in diagnosis of diseases and dysfunctions as well as widespread components of pharmaceutical formulations. Therefore, development of highly sensitive, rapid, and economically efficient methods for the determination of catecholamines is of great interest. The spectroscopic analytical methods have a good potential in this respect. This mini-review summarizes in a concise manner some advances and trends in the determination of catecholamines by spectroscopic methods, including spectrophotometry, fluorescence spectroscopy, immunoassays with spectroscopic detection, Raman spectroscopy, and other methods. Information on mainly determined compounds and analyzed samples is given and discussed. Analytical strategies and performance for the quantitation of catecholamines in various samples are described.