[Research of 99mTcO4- and 99mTcO2- in injectable solutions of 99mTc-HMDP by inverse phase HPTLC]

Bone scintigraphy allows the diagnostic of many pathologies related to bone through the intravenous administration of a phosphonate bone marker complexed to 99 metastable technetium (99mTc). The instability of these injectable solutions on contact with air can lead to a mixture of pertechnetate VII (99mTcO4-) and technetium IV (99mTcO2-, xH2O), technetium IV being the only derivative to fix bone. A qualitative control of the purity of these solutions proved to be consequently important before administration. We report here the perfecting of a new chromatographic test based on reverse phase high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC). This test, simple, rapid and reproductive allows without ambiguity the detection of 99mTcO4-(VII) and 99mTcO2-(IV), xH2O in hydroxymethylene diphosphonate (HMDP) injectable solutions ready to use.