HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Ballinger, J. R. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Ballinger, J. R.

Nomenclature of ^99mTc-Technetium-Labeled Radiopharmaceuticals

Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital
London, United Kingdom

TO THE EDITOR:

Dr. Tewson is quite right when he points out in his letter that technetium chemists are somewhat lax in the description of their agents (1). In his example, ^99mTc-ciprofloxacin is internally contradictory in that it implies that ciprofloxacin contains the atom technetium, which of course it does not.

The pharmacopoeias do use the correct names: for example, technetium ^99mTc medronate. Apart from sestamibi and one or two others, in general the chemical names of radiopharmaceuticals do not include technetium so "technetium ^99mTc" must be added in each instance, which really is unworkable for routine use. It’s too late to close the barn door.

He also makes the point that an exact chemical structure is required for reproducible results to be obtained. The aforementioned technetium ^99mTc medronate is a constantly changing mixture of several complexes, all of which are taken up by bone and have been used, apparently reproducibly, for 30 y in the most popular nuclear medicine procedure in the world.

However, I would like to make this proposal: I will lobby the SPECT community to tighten up its nomenclature if he can persuade his colleagues in the PET world to discard the incorrect term ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) when they really mean ¹⁸F-2-deoxy-2-fluoro-D-glucose!

REFERENCE

1. Tewson TJ. Re: Synthesis and comparison of ^99mTc-enrofloxacin and ^99mTc-ciprofloxacin [letter]. J Nucl Med. 2005;46:1077.[Free Full Text]

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Ballinger, J. R. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Ballinger, J. R.