OBJECTIVE: In this presented work, an analytical method by gas chromatography coupled with flame ionization detection (GC-FID) has been developed to determine organic solvents in radiopharmaceutical samples. The effect of injection holding time, temperature variation in the injection port, and the column temperature on the analysis time and resolution (R ≥ 1.5) of ethanol and acetonitrile was studied extensively.
METHODS: The experimental conditions were optimized with the aid of further statistical analysis; thence, the proposed method was validated following the International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) Q2 (R1) guideline.
RESULTS: The proposed analytical method surpassed the acceptance criteria including the linearity > 0.990 (correlation coefficient of R2), precision < 2%, LOD, and LOQ, accuracy > 90% for all solvents. The separation between ethanol and acetonitrile was acceptable with a resolution R > 1.5. Further statistical analysis of Oneway ANOVA revealed that the increment in injection holding time and variation of temperature at the injection port did not significantly affect the analysis time. Nevertheless, the variation in injection port temperature substantially influenced the resolution of ethanol and acetonitrile peaks (p < 0.05).
CONCLUSION: The proposed analytical method has been successfully implemented to determine the organic solvent in the [18F]fluoro-ethyl-tyrosine ([18F]FET), [18F]fluoromisonidazole ([18F]FMISO), and [18F]fluorothymidine ([18F]FLT).
METHODS: In the previous study, the azeotropic drying of non-carrier-added (n.c.a) 18F-Fluorine in the reactor was conducted at atmospheric pressure (0 atm) and shorter duration time. In this study, however, the azeotropic drying of non-carried-added (n.c.a) 18FFluorine was made at a high vacuum pressure (- 0.65 to - 0.85 bar) with an additional time of 30 seconds. At the end of the synthesis, the mean radiochemical yield was statistically compared between the two azeotropic drying conditions so as to observe whether the improvement made was significant to the radiochemical yield.
RESULTS: From the paired sample t-test analysis, the improvement done to the azeotropic drying of non-carrier-added (n.c.a) 18F-Fluorine was statistically significant (p < 0.05). With the improvement made, the 18F-Fluorcholine radiochemical yield was found to have increase by one fold.
CONCLUSION: Improved 18F-Fluorocholine radiochemical yields were obtained after the improvement had been done to the azeotropic drying of non-carrier-added (n.c.a) 18F-Fluorine. It was also observed that improvement made to the azeotropic drying of non-carrier-added (n.c.a) 18F-Fluorine did not affect the 18F-Fluorocholine quality control analysis.
METHODS: The European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) procedure guidelines version 2.0 for FDG-PET tumor imaging has adhered for this purpose. A NEMA2012/IEC2008 phantom was filled with tumor to background ratio of 10:1 with the activity concentration of 30 kBq/ml ± 10 and 3 kBq/ml ± 10% for each radioisotope. The phantom was scanned using different acquisition times per bed position (1, 5, 7, 10 and 15 min) to determine the Tmin. The definition of Tmin was performed using an image coefficient of variations (COV) of 15%.
RESULTS: Tmin obtained for 18F, 68Ga and 124I were 3.08, 3.24 and 32.93 min, respectively. Quantitative analyses among 18F, 68Ga and 124I images were performed. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast recovery coefficients (CRC), and visibility (VH) are the image quality parameters analysed in this study. Generally, 68Ga and 18F gave better image quality as compared to 124I for all the parameters studied.
CONCLUSION: We have defined Tmin for 18F, 68Ga and 124I SPECT CT imaging based on NEMA2012/IEC2008 phantom imaging. Despite the long scanning time suggested by Tmin, improvement in the image quality is acquired especially for 124I. In clinical practice, the long acquisition time, nevertheless, may cause patient discomfort and motion artifact.