METHOD OF ASSAYING D-VANILLYLMANDELIC ACID, AND REAGENT AND KIT THEREFOR

The present invention is concerned with a method of assaying D-vanillylmandelic acid (D-VMA) contained in a specimen of a living organism through the following steps (A) to (D), and a reagent and a kit used for the assay, wherein a racemic mixture of VMA is used as the standard substance for preparing a calibration curve and a labeled anti-D-VMA antibody is used as the labeled anti-VMA antibody to specifically assay only D-VMA in the specimen: (A) the step of conducting a competitive reaction of VMA in the specimen and VMA in solid phase against the labeled anti-VMA antibody; (B) the step of separating the liquid phase from the solid phase; (C) the step of determining the quantity of labeling of the labeled anti-VMA antibody combined with the solid-phase VMA and that of other substances; and (D) the step of preparing a calibration curve or obtaining an equation by using a standard substance of a known concentration, calculating the concentration of VMA corresponding to the quantity of labeling determined in the step (C) by using the calibration curve or equation thus obtained, and defining the concentration thus calculated as the concentration of VMA contained in the specimen.