A new concept for radionuclide generator systems

Abstract

Radiodiagnostic meth ods of nu clear med i cine use short-lived iso topes for va ri ety of im ag ing pur poses. In med i cal cen ters these iso topes are pro duced com monly by spe cial equip ment, as known as "radionuclide gener a tors". The radionuclide gen er ated by them can be pe ri od i cally ex tracted and, af ter sim ple chem i cal process ing, used for ap pro pri ate med i cal ap pli ca tion. In de vel oped and com mer cially avail able radionuclide gen er a tors, the sep a ra tion and ex trac tion of iso topes is set up on the prin ci ples of forced col umn chro ma tog raphy, i.e. by means of pos i tive (or neg a tive) pres sure-driven elu tion. Al though these sorp tion-type gen er a tors work fine and, in gen eral, ac com plish most of the re quire ments for med i cal ap pli ca tion, yet an other prin ci ple of gen er a tor's con struc tion ap pears to be also pos si ble. In this pa per a new con cept for de vel op ing a gen er a tor sys tem, in which the sep a ra tion and ex trac tion of radionuclides is car ried out on an elec tro pho retic ba sis is dis cussed. De tails such as con struc tion pos si bil ity, the o ret i cal mo ti va tion as well as ex pected ef fec tive ness are con sid ered. Some pos si ble ad van tages, con cern ing radiopharmaceutical us age of pro posed elec tro pho retic gen er a tors are outlined.