Automatic radioisotope manipulation for small amount of nuclear medicine using an EWOD device with a dimple structure

Delicate animal experiments and microdose clinical trials using short-lived radioisotopes require rapid preparation with high accuracy and careful attention to safety within a limited timeframe. We have developed an open-style electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) device containing dimple structures for the rapid preparation of radiolabelled reagents. The device was demonstrated by automatic preparation of a technetium diethylenetriamine pentaacetate (^99mTc-DTPA) with high chelation efficiency (99.7 ± 0.13%). Additionally, we demonstrated the single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography imaging of mouse kidney using the ^99mTc-DTPA prepared with the EWOD device. The obtained organ tomographic images were sufficient for the evaluation of mouse models for specific diseases. These results indicate that manual radiolabelling for a small amount of nuclear medicine can be replaced by a process using the proposed EWOD device as a human error reduction technique.