PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Wieseler, Joseph F. AU - Gebhard, Mark W. AU - Hung, Joseph C. AU - Mullan, Brian P. AU - Wilson, Mark E. TI - In Vivo Comparison of Anticoagulant Citrate Dextrose Versus Heparin for Use as an Anticoagulant with the UltraTag<sup>®</sup> Red Blood Cell Kit DP - 1994 Sep 01 TA - Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology PG - 178--181 VI - 22 IP - 3 4099 - http://tech.snmjournals.org/content/22/3/178.short 4100 - http://tech.snmjournals.org/content/22/3/178.full SO - J. Nucl. Med. Technol.1994 Sep 01; 22 AB - Objective: The package insert for the UltraTag® RBC kit recommends the use of either heparin or anticoagulant citrate dextrose (ACD) as an anticoagulant. A comparison study between heparin and ACD solution was done to assess image quality. Methods: Fourteen patients’ red blood cells (RBC) were labeled with the UltraTag® RBC kit and 99mTc using 10 units of heparin or 0.15 ml of ACD solution-A per ml of blood. The labeling efficiency (LE) of the 99mTc-labeled RBC was determined before and after reinjection, and multigated acquisition (MUGA) and whole-body images were subsequently obtained. Results: The images were analyzed by comparing the heart-to-background ratio, heart-to-lung ratio and kidney-to-background ratio. Both heparin and ACD gave similar LE and ratios of regions of interest. Conclusion: There was no significant difference between ACD and heparin groups in overall image quality either on MUGA or on visual inspection of whole-body images.