personalized 18fdg dose synthesis using bg75 generator: 1st year experience at jci accredited tertiary care hospital in pakistan

Background: compact cyclotrons are getting popular to fulfill enormous current demands of pet tracers. aga khan university hospital, karachi, pakistan has acquired the first smallest footprint of bg75 generator for 18fdgbased pet/ct clinical imaging. we are sharing our experience of bg75 in the first year (december 2015november 2016) after commissioning. material and methods: bg75 generator (abt, usa) was installed in available space without major design modification. it has a selfshielded minicyclotron (7.5 mev proton beam, positive ion with current < 5µa) to produce [18f]f, an automated cardbased radiochemistry module to produce 18fdg and automated qc module to perform tests upon each batch of 18fdg. data were collected for yields of [18f]f, 18fdg, qc and radiation safety parameters. results: total 545 runs in 167 days (3±01 runs/day) were made. average yield with 60 minute bombardment using 4.5 µa current was 37 mci and 21 mci for [18f]f and 18fdg, respectively. total 29 runs had chemistry or qc failures and were discarded. remaining 516 batches were used to perform imaging upon 1370 patients (8±03 patients/day). radiation dose in bg75 suite and effective doses to 02 operators were within statutory limits. conclusion: bg75 generator provides safe, dependable and sustainable supply of 18ffluoride for 18fdg and other lowvolume clinical pet imaging. its compactness and automation need minimal space and manpower. radiation dose rate in cyclotron suite and personal dosimetry were also found within safe limits. its doseondemand workflow offers a new concept of personalized dose preparation which is currently not possible with a conventional cyclotron.