Novel and simple carbon-11-labeled ammonium salts as PET agents for myocardial perfusion imaging.

Background: Positron emission tomography (PET) has clear advantages over single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) in the field of myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS); however, there are just a small number of efficient PET tracers available today for MPS. We sought to develop and perform a preliminary biological evaluation of novel carbon-11-labeled ammonium salts as potential MPS PET agents.

Methods And Results: Three potential tracers were labeled and evaluated via biodistribution in mice and PET imaging in both rats and rabbits, and the results obtained were also compared to agents that are routinely used in the clinical practice.

Conclusions: The results designated carbon-11-labeled ammonium salts as having great potential as MPS PET agents. Specifically, carbon-11-labeled trimethyl-phenyl-ammonium iodide ([(11)C]2) and homologues of higher lipophilicity/charge warrant further studies in larger animals and humans such as measurements of myocardial uptake at rest and stress under both normal and pathological coronary flow conditions.