The paper reports two analytical high-performance liquid chromatographic methods to detect and quantify cardiac-derived histidyl derivatives. Method A relies on relative hydrophobicities as a basis of separation. Method B is an ion-pairing method in which the compounds are eluted in an entirely different order. Fractions collected from method A have been co-eluted in admixture in method B with authentic reference compounds. Thus the existence of the following imidazole ring-containing compounds derived from heart have been confirmed: N-acetylhistidine, N-acetyl-1-methylhistidine, N-acetylcarnosine, N-acetylhomocarnosine, homocarnosine, anserine, carnosine, balenine. Compounds were found in both tissue samples and perfusates.