Title:Optimising the Azeotropic Drying of 18F-Fluorine Wayto Improve the 18F-Fluorocholine Radiochemical Yield
VOLUME: 9 ISSUE: 2
Author(s):Hishar Hassan, Suharzelim Abu Bakar, Khairul Najah Che A Halim, Jaleezah Idris, Fathinul Fikri Ahmad Saad and Abdul Jalil Nordin
Affiliation:Centre for Diagnostic Nuclear Imaging, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Malaysia.
Keywords:Azeotropic drying, 18F-Fluorocholine, GE TracerLab MXFDG, quality control analysis, radiochemical yield.
Abstract:Background and Objective: 18F-Fluorocholine has been suggested as
one of the reputable imaging tracers for diagnosis of prostate tumour in Positron
Emission Tomography / Computed Tomography (PET/CT) modality. Nevertheless,
it has never been synthesised in Malaysia. We acknowledged that the major
problem with 18F-Fluorocholine is due to its relatively low radiochemical yield at
the end of synthesis (EOS). Therefore, this article presents improved 18FFluorocholine
radiochemical yields after carrying out optimisation on azeotropic
drying of 18F-Fluorine.
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.
