Detection of normetanephrine (NMN), metanephrine (MN) and 3-methoxytyramine (3-MT) could be used to diagnose pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas (PPGLs). The accuracy for the diagnosis of PPGLs is only 6% by virtue of the classic symptom triad. In addition, false-positive results were found using plasma free MNs as biomarkers. Spot urinary free metanephrines (MNs) presented high specificity for PPGLs diagnosis in our previous work by HPLC with the electrochemical detection. Whereas, MNs and creatinine (Cr) need to be detected separately. A simple and specific method was urgently needed for the diagnosis of PPGLs.

Here, we established a new HPLC method for spot urinary free MNs and 3-MT by the fluorescence detection and Cr by the ultraviolet detection simultaneously. It was worth mentioning that Cr for the virtue of being fairly constant in a given subject was used as an internal reference correction to eliminate the effect of spot urine volume for the diagnosis of PPGLs.

Thirty-seven patients with PPGLs and 164 control subjects were detected by the established method and the peak area ratios of MNs and 3-MT to Cr were used innovatively for the diagnosis of PPGLs. The results showed acceptable precisions and recoveries. The sensitivities of the method were 94.6%, 91.9% and 86.5% and the specificities were 96.3%, 93.9% and 82.3%, respectively by the peak area of NMN/Cr, MN/Cr and 3-MT/Cr for the diagnosis. The established method provides a promising way for simple, rapid and accurate diagnosis of PPGLs.

去甲肾上腺素（NMN），间肾上腺素（MN）和3-甲氧基酪胺（3-MT）的检测可用于诊断嗜铬细胞瘤和副神经节瘤（PPGL）。借助经典的症状三联征，PPGL的诊断准确性仅为6％。此外，使用无血浆的MN作为生物标记物发现了假阳性结果。尿液中游离尿肾上腺素（MNs）在我们之前的HPLC和电化学检测工作中对PPGLs的诊断具有很高的特异性。而MN和肌酐（Cr）需要分别检测。迫切需要一种简单而具体的方法来诊断PPGL。

在这里，我们建立了一种新的高效液相色谱方法，用于同时检测尿中游离的MNs和3-MT（通过荧光检测）和Cr（通过紫外线检测）。值得一提的是，Cr在给定的受试者中由于相当恒定而被用作内部参考校正，以消除点尿量对PPGLs诊断的影响。

通过建立的方法检测了37例PPGLs患者和164名对照受试者，并将MNs和3-MT与Cr的峰面积比创新地用于PPGLs的诊断。结果表明可接受的精度和回收率。该方法用于诊断的NNN / Cr，MN / Cr和3-MT / Cr的峰面积分别为94.6％，91.9％和86.5％，特异性分别为96.3％，93.9％和82.3％。所建立的方法为简单，快速，准确地诊断PPGL提供了有希望的方法。