Clinical value of radionuclide small intestine transit time measurement combined with lactulose hydrogen breath test for the diagnosis of bacterial overgrowth in irritable bowel syndrome.

Objective: Small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) may be a pathogenetic factor for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). This syndrome cannot be explained by structural abnormalities and has no specific diagnostic laboratory tests or biomarkers. We studied quantitatively and semi-quantitatively, using lactulose hydrogen breath test (LHBT), small intestinal transit time (SITT) (99m)technetium-diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid ((99m)Tc-DTPA) in order to examine the mobility of small intestine as an indication of bacterial overgrowth in patients.

A combined simple bubbling method with high performance liquid chromatography purification strategy, higher radiochemical yield and purity and faster preparation of carbon-11-raclopride.

Objective: Carbon-11-raclopride (¹¹C-R) is a positron-emitting radiotracer successfully used for the study of cognitive control and widely applied in PET imaging. A simple automated preparation of ¹¹C-R by using the reaction of carbon-(11)-methyl triflate (¹¹C-MeOTF) or ¹¹C-methyl iodide (¹¹C-MeI) with demethylraclopride is described.

Methods: Specifically we used a simple setup applied an additional "U" reaction vessel for ¹¹C-MeOTf compared with ¹¹C-MeI and assessed the influence of several solvents and of the amount of the percussor for ¹¹C-methylation of demethylraclopride by the bubbling method.