ANOMALIES IN HEPATOBILIARY EXCRETION OF TECHNETIUM-99M-MAG(3) PREPARATIONS

Technetium-99m-MAG(3) is accepted as a renal tubular function agent. H owever, sporadic liver and gall bladder visualisation during its clini cal use is clearly a disadvantage. HPLC-purified (99)mTc-MAG(3) sample s exhibited appreciable hepatobiliary uptake (7%), and an elevated lev el of such uptake was observed in unpurified kit preparations, which w as stated to be associated with the excretory property of the radiolab eled kit impurities. To verify this we attempted to quantitate the hep atobiliary uptake of the kit preparations with that of its radiolabele d components. The contribution of each component toward hepatobiliary uptake of the sample was calculated from their abundance in the chelat e mixture and the individual biodistribution of the isolated component s. However, the anticipated hepatobiliary uptake of different preparat ions of Tc-99m-MAG(3) calculated in this way was always lower than tha t of the experimental value determined directly. Further work is neede d to explain the anomaly. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Inc.