Abstract
For patients with right-to-left cardiac shunts and pediatric lung scan patients who will receive technetium-99m macroaggregated albumin (99mTc-MAA), it is necessary to reduce the number of MAA particles given. A previous method for reducing the number of 99mTc-MAA particles limits the injected volume to 0.1 ml, which is too small for any practical use. In addition, if the volume injected is increased, the excessive dilution of the stannous chloride results in a poor labeling. By initially incubating a small volume of sodium [99mTc]pertechnetate in a predivided MAA vial, our proposed method is able not only to achieve a greater binding efficiency, but also a more practical injected volume (0.5–1.0 ml) compared to the previous method. The 99mTc-MAA particle size, number, and stability over time were all within an acceptable range.
