PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Kristie Krogman
AU  - Bernard McKay
AU  - Mike Zimmer
AU  - Lisa Riehle
AU  - Gary Dillehay
TI  - Miniaturized chromatography system for Tc-99m labeled red blood cells.
DP  - 2017 May 01
TA  - Journal of Nuclear Medicine
PG  - 821--821
VI  - 58
IP  - supplement 1
4099  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/58/supplement_1/821.short
4100  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/58/supplement_1/821.full
SO  - J Nucl Med2017 May 01; 58
AB  - 821Objectives: According to red cell labeling kit package inserts, quality control procedures for Tc-99m labeled red blood cells (RBCs) require centrifugation. Many nuclear medicine departments do not have centrifuges. As a result, our nuclear pharmacy evaluated a rapid miniaturized chromatography system to assess the radiochemical purity of Tc-99m labeled RBCs.Methods: Several miniaturized chromatography systems, including Whatman 31ET, Whatman 17, Agilent ITLC-SG, and Agilent ITLC- SA, were evaluated with methanol, acetone, and normal saline as solvents. For each specific chromatography system, Tc-99m RBCs were spotted and following strip development, strip activity distribution was performed using a chromatography scanner interfaced to a multichannel analyzer. In order to assess specific radiochemical impurities, a RBC kit was radiolabeled using normal saline instead of RBCs. At each labeling step in the procedure, an aliquot was removed and chromatographically assessed utilizing various chromatography systems. In addition, a high radiochemical purity and a low radiochemical purity Tc-99m RBC preparation was formulated, as determined by centrifugation according to package insert. The preparations were then chromatographically assessed to determine the radiochemical purity and results compared to centrifugation.Results: A miniaturized chromatography system consisting of Whatman 31ET with normal saline was evaluated and determined to be the optimal miniaturized chromatography system for radiolabeled RBCs. Using this chromatography system, minimal migration of Tc-99m RBCs from the origin (Rf=0.0) and significant migration of radiochemical impurities (Rf=0.7 to 0.9) were observed. The radiochemical purity of the high purity Tc-99m RBC preparation was 98%, which was comparable to the result obtained from centrifugation. With the low purity Tc-99m RBC preparation, the radiochemical purity from chromatography was 21%, which was lower than the results obtained from centrifugation.Conclusion: A rapid miniaturized chromatography system consisting of Whatman 31ET with normal saline was effective in evaluating the radiochemical purity of Tc-99m RBCs. Distinct separation of Tc-99m RBCs from specific radiochemical impurities was observed with this miniaturized chromatography system.