Ultrafast LC method for purification and metabolite analysis of PET probes

An ultrafast and efficient high-performance liquid chromatographic (LC) method was developed to purify positron emission tomography (PET) radiopharmaceuticals as well as for metabolite analysis of the plasma sample. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a short (60 mm length) semipreparative (10 mm I.D.) column packed with 2.5-μm particles using a mixture of acetonitrile and sodium phosphate buffer as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 8-10 ml/min. Under the optimum conditions, excellent separation of the target PET probe was obtained from chemical/radiochemical impurities or radioactive metabolites with a very short run time of 2 min. This characteristic enabled significant shortening of the purification and evaporation processes in the production of short-lived radiopharmaceuticals and highly sensitive radiometric analysis with good temporal resolution during the metabolism study.