Reusable electrochemical cell for rapid separation of [¹8F]fluoride from [¹8O]water for flow-through synthesis of ¹8F-labeled tracers.

A brass-platinum electrochemical micro-flow cell was developed to extract [(18)F]fluoride from an aqueous solution and release it into an organic-based solution, suitable for subsequent radio-synthesis, in a fast and reliable manner. This cell does not suffer electrode erosion and is thus reusable while operating faster by enabling increased voltages. By optimizing temperature, trapping and release potentials, flow rates, and electrode materials, an overall [(18)F]fluoride trapping and release efficiency of 84 ± 5% (n=7) was achieved. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used to analyze electrode surfaces of various metal-metal systems and the findings were correlated with the performance of the electrochemical cell. To demonstrate the reactivity of the released [(18)F]fluoride, the cell was coupled to a flow-through reactor and automated synthesis of [(18)F]FDG with a repeatable decay-corrected yield of 56 ± 4% (n=4) was completed in < 15 min. A multi-human dose of 5.92GBq [(18)F]FDG was also demonstrated.

A simple effective method for estimating the [18O] enrichment of water mixtures.

Isotopically enriched water, [18O] H(2)O, recovered from the synthesis of [18F] fluorine-labelled PET radiopharmaceuticals, is frequently diluted with natural water, [16O] H(2)O. The extent of isotope dilution limits the usefulness of the recovered water. A simple method for determining the [18O] enrichment of water mixtures could aid PET cyclotron facilities to calculate the [18F] yields to be expected when the recovered [18O] H(2)O is reused. A gravimetric method (repeatability for high enrichment +/-0.3% [18O], detection limit approximately 2% [18O] enrichment) is described.

Production and dosimetry of [14O]water for PET activation studies.

[14O]water was produced by the 14N(p,n)14O reaction in quantities greater than 80mCi (EOB). The carbon-11 impurity in the final product was approximately 0.003 +/- 0.002% of 14O activity at EOB. A factor of 0.5 +/- 0.02 was obtained to correct the dose calibrator for the additional 2.313 MeV gamma-ray. The effective dose equivalent was calculated for 14O and 15O using MIRDOSE, and the 14O dose was found to be approximately 70% of that for 15O. For scanner performance based on noise equivalent count measurements, the peak activity concentration for 14O was 30% lower than that for 15O. At their peak activity concentrations the noise equivalent count rate for 14O was found to be about 13% less than that for 15O.