IMPROVING THE YIELD OF 2-[F-18]FLUORO-2-DEOXYGLUCOSE USING A MICROWAVE CAVITY

We have investigated the use of a microwave cavity (Labwell AB, Sweden ) to improve the radiochemical yield of 2-[F-18]fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (2-[F-18]FDG). After characterizing the heating properties of the cavi ty, three steps of the Hamacher 2-[F-18]FDG synthesis which require he ating-azeotropic distillation of the target water, nucleophilic substi tution, and hydrolysis of the product-were investigated separately. Th e average radiochemical yield of 2-[F-18]FDG for the microwave synthes is, using the phase transfer reagent tetrabutylammonium bicarbonate, w as 62 +/- 4% (72 +/- 5%, decay corrected, synthesis time = 31 min).