Estimation of lipid peroxidation (LPO) through malonaldehyde (MDA) formation measured by assaying thiobarbituric acid reactive products remains the method of choice to study the development of oxidative stress to assess myocardial ischemic reperfusion injury. However, MDA estimation by this assay is non-specific and often gives erroneous results. In this report, we describe a method to estimate MDA, formaldehyde (FDA), acetaldehyde (ADA), and acetone, the degradation products of oxygen free radicals (OFR) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), as presumptive markers for LPO. Isolated rat hearts were made ischemic for 30 min, followed by 60 min of reperfusion. The perfusates were collected, derivatized with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine, and extracted with pentane. Aliquots of 25 microliters in acetonitrile were injected on a Beckman Ultrasphere C18 (3 microns) column. The products were eluted isocratically with a mobile phase containing acetonitrile-water-acetic acid (40:60:0.1, v/v/v). The peaks were identified by co-chromatography with the hydrazine derivatives of authentic standards. The retention times of MDA, FDA, ADA and acetone were 5.0, 6.3, 9.8 and 15.7 min, respectively. The results of our study indicated progressive increase in all four lipid metabolites with reperfusion time. Thus, our results demonstrate that the release of lipid metabolites from the isolated heart increased in response to oxidative stress. Since MDA, FDA, ADA, and acetone are the products of OFR-PUFA interactions, this method allows proper estimation of LPO to monitor the oxidative stress developed during the reperfusion of ischemic myocardium.