Heart affinity of radioactive ruthenocene derivatives of quinuclidine-3-ol

2-Ferrocenyliden-quinuclidin-2-one was synthesized by the reaction of ferrocenaldehyde with quinuclidin-2-one. The keto-group of the reaction product was reduced to the corresponding alcohol. From these ferrocene derivatives the corresponding 103Ru labelled ruthenocene compounds were obtained by an exchange reaction with 103RuCl3. During this exchange reaction in methanol (or ethanol) the OH-group attached to the quinuclidine moiety was partly transformed to the methyl-ether or ethyl-ether. Furthermore, by an exchange of the cyclopentadienyl systems, ruthenocene compounds were prepared, in which quinuclidine side chains were fixed to each of the 2 cyclopentadienyl rings in the ruthenocene derivative. These 103Ru-labelled di-ethers showed in rats an extremely high myocard affinity with low concentrations in blood and liver, with better heart/blood or heart/liver ratios than 99Tc-TBI. (author)