Metabolic comparison of radiolabeled bleomycin and bleomycin-glucuronide labeled with 99mTc.

The metabolic comparison of bleomycin (BLM) and bleomycin-glucuronide (BLMG) radiolabeled with (99m)Tc ((99m)Tc-BLM and (99m)Tc-BLMG, respectively) has been investigated in this study. Quality control procedures were carried out using thin-layer radiochromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography. To compare the metabolic behavior of BLM and its glucuronide conjugate radiolabeled with (99m)Tc, scintigraphic, and biodistributional techniques were applied using male New Zealand rabbits and Albino Wistar rats. The results obtained have shown that these compounds were successfully radiolabeled with a labeling yield of about 100%. Maximum uptakes of (99m)Tc-BLM and (99m)Tc-BLMG metabolized as N-glucuronide were observed within 2 hours in the liver, the bladder, and the spinal cord for (99m)Tc-BLM and the lung, the liver, the kidney, the large intestine, and the spinal cord for (99m)Tc-BLMG, respectively. Scintigraphy and biodistributional studies performed on the experimental animals have shown that radiopharmaceutical potentials of these compounds are completely different. At the same time, uptake of the (99m)Tc-BLMG was found to be better than that of (99m)Tc-BLM.

Assessment of alveolar epithelial permeability in Behçet's disease with 99mTc-DTPA aerosol scintigraphy.

OBJECTIVE: Behçet's disease (BD) is a multisystem disorder characterized by vasculitis, and consists of a triad of recurrent ulcers of the oral and genital mucosa with relapsing uveitis. The prevalance of pulmonary involvement varies in the range of 1-10% in various studies and its complications are severe and life threatening. In this study, we investigated the changes of pulmonary epithelial permeability of patients with BD using technetium-99m diethylene triamine penta-acetic acid ((99m)Tc-DTPA) aerosol scintigraphy, so as to begin the therapy regimen as soon as possible. METHODS: Twenty-one nonsmoking patients with BD (8 women, 13 men; mean age 38.67 +/- 8.86 years) and 15 healthy volunteer nonsmoking controls (8 women, 7 men; mean age 50.87 +/- 12.45 years) underwent (99m)Tc-DTPA aerosol inhalation scintigraphy and pulmonary function tests (PFTs). Subjects inhaled 1480 MBq of (99m)Tc-DTPA for 4 min in the supine position. Scintigraphic data were recorded dynamically (1 frame/min) in the posterior projection on a 64 x 64 matrix for a 30-min period using a double-headed gamma camera (Infinia, GE, Tirat Hacarmel, Israel) equipped with a low-energy all-purpose parallel hole collimator. Half time of (99m)Tc-DTPA clearance (T (1/2)) was calculated by placing a mono-exponential fit on the curves. Penetration index (PI) was also calculated by dividing the peripheral total counts by the sum of the peripheral and central total counts on the first minute image, in order to quantify the distribution of the inhaled aerosol. RESULTS: The clearance half time of (99m)Tc-DTPA radioaerosols in the BD patients (24.81 +/- 6.22 min) was faster than in the normal control group (46.53 +/- 22.41 min) (P = 0.004). There was also a significant difference between PI of the patients with BD (0.15 +/- 0.03) and that of the controls (0.21 +/- 0.06) (P = 0.002). No correlation was found between the mean T (1/2) values of (99m)Tc-DTPA clearance or the spirometric measurements in the BD patients. Penetration indices were not correlated with PFT in the BD patients. CONCLUSIONS: Lung epithelial permeability of the patients with BD was significantly higher than that of the normal subjects. The results of this study demonstrated that the assessment of lung epithelial permeability using (99m)Tc-DTPA aerosol scintigraphy could predict the presence of lung involvement in the early stages of BD.