Recovery of O-18 target water after its use for F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose production

Oxygen-18 (0-18) water is routinely used for production of fluorine-18 (F-18)containing radiolabeled tracers used for diagnosis of various diseases and disorders by positron emission tomography (PET). After the use of 0-18 water in a cyclotron to produce F-18 containing compounds, many contaminants are left behind in the 0-18 water. 0-18 water is quite expensive and rare; therefore, the 0-18 water should be recovered for reuse. However, most PET facilities are privately run and there are no widely used procedures for the use of 0-18 water, so the types of impurities in used 0-18 water vary widely from one facility to another. Therefore, there needs to be developed widely applicable procedure for the recovery of 0-18 water for reuse.The two basic types of contaminants in used 0-18 water are organic and ionic contaminants. Many experiments involving ion-exchange, organic adsorption, distillation,UV irradiation, and permanganate oxidation were attempted with the goal of recovering 0-18 water for reuse. In order for a technique to be successful, it needs to remove most of the organic and ionic contamination from the used 0-18 water regardless of what the specific contaminants are. The technique also should not result in the dilution the 0-18 water samples with 0-16 water. After much experimentation, the most successful technique was found to be a reflux of the used 0-18 water samples with potassium permanganate followed by two distillations.