Development of the 'one-click' 18F-NaF module

2517 Objectives Technetium-99 scans with 99mTc-MDP or 99mTc-HDP are the most popular radiopharmaceuticals for bone scintigraphy. Despite of this enormous demand, the world gradually reaches to a sparse Mo-99 supply. As an alternative to 99mTc-labeled bone imaging agent, 18F-NaF has desirable characteristics as a bone PET imaging agent. Until now, many groups usually used the conventional synthetic modules for the preparation of the injectable solution of 18F-NaF. Herein, we describe an automated and simple method for the rapid production of 18F-NaF using a self-developed module. Methods To develop a self-developed 18F-NaF module for the rapid and easy production, we designed one-click 18F-NaF modules which consist of 5 pneumatic solenoid valves, micro control unit chip (AVR) and IAR Embeded workbench program. The process for preparation of 18F-NaF contains three steps; loading to QMA Sep-Pak cartridge of fluorine-18 solution, rinsing of QMA Sep-Pak cartridge by 10 mL of distilled water and elution of injectable 18F-NaF solution by saline with sterilization through AEF membrane filter. After that, quality control of 18F-NaF injection was carried out according to the Korean Pharmacopeia. Results The size of self-developed 18F-NaF module was 200 (w) x 200 (h) x 200 (d) mm. The total synthesis time end-of bombardment was 6 ± 0.2 minutes. Radiochemical yield was 93.7 ± 2.1% (n = 48) with high reproducibility. The obtained 18F-NaF injection solution was evaluated for all categories of quality control and successfully met all release criteria. Conclusions We successfully developed an exclusive 18F-NaF module including one-click process. This compact module showed a high efficiency for the production of 18F-NaF with simple and rapid process. It could be conveniently installed in small hot cell.