Study on manufacture of automated synthesizer of ¹⁸F-FCH radiopharmaceutical used for PET/CT

¹⁸F-Fluoromethylcholine (¹⁸F-FCH) Pharmaceuticals is used in PET/CT scans to diagnose prostate cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma. ¹⁸F-FCH Production is performed on automatic synthesizer. This study introduces automatic synthesizer designed and manufactured to produce ¹⁸F-FCH. The synthesizer includes programming software using Lab view tool to control hardware through RS232-COM communication standard. The hardware consists of a machine box containing communication control circuit board, 15 motors, temperature sensor, 1 vacuum pump and pneumatic controller. Integrated processor kit is designed with 1 row of 15 three-way valves connected to the reactor to perform commands controlling the ¹⁸F-FCH synthesis process. Experimental results show that: The synthesizer is easy installing, operating and stable in run; commands controlling liquid flow, compressed air and temperature are performed accuracy. Test for ¹⁸F-FCH synthesis using this synthesizer at 30 MeV cyclotron centre, 108 Hospital has confirmed that Errors of temperature control is of ±0.5℃; errors of retention time control is of ±0.1 min; errors of liquid and gas volume control are of ± 1 ml; total time of the synthesis of a ¹⁸F-FCH batch is 40 ± 2 min; synthesis yield is 21.4± 0.2% with no decay correction and radiochemical purity is more than 95% that meet the requirements of European Pharmacopoeia 2017. (author)