The use of liquid scintillation counting as a very sensitive radioanalytical tool for the determination of alpha, beta and electron emitting impurities in radiopharmaceutical compounds

Many labeled compounds are used as radiopharmaceuticals (RP), for emission imaging and metabolic radiotherapy and contain as labeling agents γ, β-, β+, monochromatic e- and α emitting radionuclides (RN). These labeled compounds very often contain unexpected radionuclidic impurities. Some long-lived isotopic and non-isotopic impurities lead to undesirable radiation doses to the patient and his relatives, as well as to medical/paramedical personnel, other than the general population, due to rad-waste of contaminated specimen and excretion of biological fluids. Use was made of liquid scintillation counting/spectrometry (LSCS) for the detection of tiny amounts of charged particle emitting impurities in RPs labeled with 64Cu, 67Ga, 90Y, 90Sr/ 90Y, 123I, 153Sm, 177Lu and 201Tl.