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Whole-body distribution and dosimetry of O-(2-[18F]fluoroethyl)-l-tyrosine

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Abstract

The whole-body distribution of O-(2-[18F]fluoroethyl)-l-tyrosine (FET) was studied in seven patients with brain tumours by positron emission tomography (PET). Based on the IMEDOSE and MIRDOSE procedures, radiation absorbed doses were estimated from whole-body PET scans acquired approximately 70 and 200 min after i.v. injection of 400 MBq FET. After injection of FET, the peak of radioactivity in the blood was observed after 1.5 min, and a plateau of nearly constant radioactivity was reached at 20 min. The whole-body distribution of FET showed the highest activities in the urinary tract. All other organs exhibited only moderate FET uptake (SUV ≤1.6) which remained constant between early and late PET scans. No increased uptake was seen in the bone, the biliary tract or the pancreas. Twenty-two percent of the injected activity was excreted 5 h p.i. (approx. 5.3% ID/h). The highest absorbed dose was found for the urinary bladder wall. The effective dose according to ICRP 60 was 16.5 µSv/MBq for adults, which would lead to an effective dose of 6.1 mSv in a PET study using 370 MBq FET.

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Fig. 3A, B.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Mrs. E. Theelen and Mrs. S. Schaden for assistance in patient studies and data analysis, Mrs. B. Palm, Mrs. E. Wabbals and Mrs. S. Grafmüller for technical assistance in radiosynthesis of FET and Mr. M. Lang for technical assistance in TLC analysis.

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Correspondence to Dirk Pauleit.

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Pauleit, D., Floeth, F., Herzog, H. et al. Whole-body distribution and dosimetry of O-(2-[18F]fluoroethyl)-l-tyrosine. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 30, 519–524 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-003-1118-0

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