Development of myocardial perfusion tracers for positron emission tomography

Six positron-emitting cations were investigated as possible perfusion tracers: [13N]NH4, 38K, 51Mn, 52mMn, 81Rb, and 82Rb. Aspects of the production of the radionuclides and their separations from the irradiated target materials were addressed. The thick target, saturated yields of several nuclear reactions leading to these radionuclides were studied theoretically and experimentally in the energy range 6-10 MeV. A figure-of-merit describing the production aspects of each tracer was calculated, and tomographic imaging results in normal human subjects were reported.