title: Microfluidics: a groundbreaking technology for PET tracer production?
abstract: Application of microfluidics to Positron Emission Tomography (PET) tracer synthesis has attracted increasing interest within the last decade. The technical advantages of microfluidics, in particular the high surface to volume ratio and resulting fast thermal heating and cooling rates of reagents can lead to reduced reaction times, increased synthesis yields and reduced by-products. In addition automated reaction optimization, reduced consumption of expensive reagents and a path towards a reduced system footprint have been successfully demonstrated. The processing of radioactivity levels required for routine production, use of microfluidic-produced PET tracer doses in preclinical and clinical imaging as well as feasibility studies on autoradiolytic decomposition have all given promising results. However, the number of microfluidic synthesizers utilized for commercial routine production of PET tracers is very limited. This study reviews the state of the art in microfluidic PET tracer synthesis, highlighting critical design aspects, strengths, weaknesses and presenting several characteristics of the diverse PET market space which are thought to have a significant impact on research, development and engineering of microfluidic devices in this field. Furthermore, the topics of batch- and single-dose production, cyclotron to quality control integration as well as centralized versus de-centralized market distribution models are addressed.
authors.affiliation: GE Global Research, Freisinger Landstrasse 50, Garching bei Munich 85748, Germany. rensch@ge.com
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rensch
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jackson
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lindner
authors.forename: Ruben
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Salvamoser
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Samper
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Riese
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bartenstein
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wängler
authors.forename: Björn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wängler
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D011786:Quality Control; D011849:Radioactive Tracers; D011868:Radioisotopes; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals / Q000138:chemical synthesis
chemical_list: D011849:Radioactive Tracers; D011868:Radioisotopes; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals