title: Microbial contamination of radionuclide generators.
abstract: Technetium-99m generators were grossly contaminted using 5 different strains of microorganisms. Elution of the generators showed that the number of microorganisms was reduced by a factor of 10(4)-10(6). There were no indications that the generators would support bacterial growth. It is concluded that it would be acceptable from a microbiologic point of view to omit autoclaving and membrane filtration of the final product provided that proper aseptic techniques are applied.
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000254:growth & development*; D003666:Decontamination; D009683:Nuclear Medicine / Q000592:standards*; D011786:Quality Control; D011868:Radioisotopes; D013667:Technetium
chemical_list: D011868:Radioisotopes; D013667:Technetium