Direct Technetium radiopharmaceuticals production using a 30MeV Cyclotron

BACKGROUND AND THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: Technetium-99m is the major radionuclide used in the world and mainly is provided by fission product. However extensive research has been conducted on the use of accelerators for production of (99m)Tc. This investigation reports the production of (99m)Tc radioisotope using cyclotrons and the preparation, quality control and biodistribution studies of four major Tc-radiopharmaceuticals. METHODS: The high purity molybdenum natural target (130 mg/cm(2)) was irradiated in a Cyclone 30 accelerator using 160 µA of 25 MeV proton beam energy for 1000 µA-h. After dissolution, the technetium radionuclides were extracted using methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) followed by preparation of Tc-MIBI, Tc-DTPA, Tc-DMSA and Tc-phytate as radiopharmaceutical samples. RESULTS: The results of quality controls and animal biodistribution studies showed successful production of Tc radionuclides (including (99m)Tc) in the bombarded target and subsequent labelling of the kit with Tc. CONCLUSION: The developed high power Mo target if constructed using enriched (100)Mo, could be a practical method for large-scale production of (99m)Tc and promising as an alternative to fission product (99)Mo-(99m)Tc generators for local applications near cyclotron facilities.