ABSTRACT
Radiopharmaceutical injection is challenging as it poses radiation exposure to staff as well as patient. Infrared light-assisted devices have been available since many years and have garnered mixed reviews in the pediatric age group. However, there are no data on outcome of infrared assistance for radiopharmaceutical injection. We compared results of first-attempt intravenous access (in cubital veins) with and without infrared assistance device for injection of radiopharmaceuticals. All adult patients who underwent nuclear scan in the initial weeks of infrared device installation were injected utilizing infrared device assistance. These were compared with those who underwent injection without infrared assistance. Three hundred consecutive patients were studied for success of intravenous injection with and without infrared assistance. Of these, 150 were injected with and 150 without infrared assistance. A success rate of 72%/51.3% was noted with and without infrared assistance, respectively, on the first attempt which was statistically significant. In our initial experience, assistance with infrared device was found to improve the outcome of first-attempt intravenous access for injection of radiopharmaceuticals. This method has potential of improving outcome for radiopharmaceutical injection.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: This study was aimed to assess technical aspects of fractionation of commonly used cold kits in Nuclear Medicine. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 90 samples (30 samples each) of technetium-99m methylene diphosphonate (99mTc-MDP), 99mTc-diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) and 99mTc-dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA III) were taken on various days. The radiochemical purity was calculated of each fraction of these cold kits by using paper chromatography. RESULTS: The mean value of radiochemical purity of 99mTc -MDP, 99mTc -DTPA and 99mTc-DMSA(III) were calculated as ~ 95.12%, 91.43% and 95.68% and standard deviation (SD) were ~ 5.43, 8.36 and 3.88, respectively. Maximum time in which fractionation procedure completed i.e. time required for preparing the fraction or thawing was 10 minutes. All fractionated aliquots were between 1 and 15 days. Radiopharmaceutical bio-distribution was found to be appropriate during imaging in all samples. CONCLUSION: Fractionation of cold kits using standardised technique is a time and cost-effective method and does not deteriorate the quality of labelling in commonly used pharmaceuticals in our study. We have used fractionated aliquots up to 3 days of preparation in patients with clinically usable radiochemical purity. Deep frozen fractions can be used up to 15 days in our experience.
