A spot test for determination of residual TBA levels in 18 F-radiotracers for human use using Dragendorff reagent

• Published in: Analytical methods Vol. 12; no. 41; p. 5004
• Main Authors: Tanzey, Sean S, Mossine, Andrew V, Sowa, Alexandra R, Torres, Jovany, Brooks, Allen F, Sanford, Melanie S, Scott, Peter J H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 30-10-2020
• Subjects: Fluorine Radioisotopes; Humans; Positron-Emission Tomography; Radiopharmaceuticals
• ISSN: 1759-9679
• DOI: 10.1039/D0AY01565B

When utilizing [
F]tetrabutylammonium fluoride ([
F]TBAF) in the synthesis of
F-labeled radiotracers for clinical positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, it is necessary to confirm that residual TBA levels in formulated doses do not exceed established specifications (≤2.6 mg per patient dose). Historically this has been accomplished using HPLC, but this is time consuming for short-lived PET radiotracers and limited by the need for expensive equipment. This motivated us to introduce a TLC spot test for determining residual TBA, and we have developed a new method which employs the Dragendorff reagent. Herein we report details of the TLC method and use it to quantify residual TBA in different formulations of 6-[
F]fluoro-DOPA.