Analytical Sciences

Development and Validation of a Liquid Chromatographic Method for the Analysis of Positron Emission Tomography Radiopharmaceuticals with Ru(bpy)₃²⁺-KMnO₄ Chemiluminescence Detection

Ryuji NAKAO,* Kenji FURUTSUKA,*^,** Masatoshi YAMAGUCHI,*** and Kazutoshi SUZUKI*

*Molecular Imaging Center, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, 4-9-1 Anagawa, Inage, Chiba 263-8555, Japan
**Sumitomo Accelerator Service, Shinagawa, Tokyo 141-8686, Japan
***Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Fukuoka University, Nanakuma, Johnan, Fukuoka 814-0180, Japan

A sensitive, selective and rapid high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method with chemiluminescence (CL) detection was developed and validated for the analysis of positron emission tomography (PET) radiopharmaceuticals. This method is based on the CL reaction of PET compounds with tris(2,2′-bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) [Ru(bpy)₃²⁺] and acidic potassium permanganate [KMnO₄]. After optimization of the reaction conditions, 12 of the 14 PET compounds investigated could be successfully detected and showed good performance in terms of sensitivity, linearity and reproducibility. In particular, for compounds with a tertiary amine functional group, the limits of detection were ppb levels for a 20 µL injection volume. Finally, this method was used to determine PET compounds for calculating of specific radioactivity in pharmaceutical samples.

J-STAGE: View this article in J-STAGE