Uric acid (UA), scavenger of oxygen radical, is a very important antioxidant that help maintains the stability of blood pressure and antioxidant stress. However, an abnormal UA concentration may be connected with many diseases: a higher UA concentration, comings from improper lifestyle such as purine excessive intake and excessive drinking, may reveal hyperuricemia, gout and some cardiovascular diseases; meanwhile, some genetic diseases can result in a low level UA relatively for a long time. Therefore, to develop a rapid and accurate detection method of UA is urgent and important. Recently many detection methods have been developed to measure the level of UA in human serum and urine sample even saliva and nails and tears. This review outlines the importance of UA detection and the history of the development of UA detection methods. UA detection include spectral (ultraviolet absorption, fluorescence), electrochemical (voltammetry, electrochemiluminescence, surface plasmon resonance), chromatography (liquid and gas phase), capillary electrophoresis and isotope dilution mass spectrometry, etc. Most of the above detection methods contain both enzymatic and nonenzymatic strategies. The materials used in mentioned methods above tend to be diversified, hence an overview of materials used in UA detection are also reported.
Keywords: Electrochemical; liquid chromatography; spectral; uric acid.