Studies on Automation of Preparation of [18F]FACBC Using a Commercial Synthesizer

A simple, rapid and fully automated preparation of [¹⁸F]1-amino-3-fluorocyclobutane-l-carboxylic acid ([¹⁸F] FACBC) has been developed on a commercial [¹⁸F]FDG synthesizer, the TRACERlab MXFDG. The reaction conditions, including reaction temperature, reaction time and precursor amount, were investigated in the F-18 labeling reaction. The hydrolysis reaction of the intermediate and purification process also were discussed. The method with these appropriate parameters produced the desired PET tracer of cyclic amino acid according to an automatic procedure, including short synthesis time (45 minutes) and a suitable and reproducible radiochemical yield (25.2 plusmn 3.6 %, decay corrected). The radiochemical purity of [¹⁸F]FACBC was greater than 95%.