Development of a reliable Hg-195m--Au-195m generator for the production of Au-195m, a short-lived nuclide for vascular imaging.

A new mercury-195m (T1/2: 41 hr) leads to gold-195m (T1/2: 30.6 sec) generator suitable for first-pass as well as steady-state radionuclide angiography studies has been developed. The distribution coefficients, Kd, for mercury (Hg-195m) and gold (Au-196), experimentally evaluated on chelating resin Chelex 100, showed this resin to be suitable as the column packing. Mercury-195m in a Trisma buffer solution at pH 7.40 was loaded on a chelating resin Chelex 100 column, together with gold carrier. Au-195m was eluted with an aqueous solution of 5% glucose in a 0.01M Trisma buffer at pH 7.70 (25 degrees C). Chemical assessment of the eluate has ensured that the eluted carrier-free gold is by no means colloidal: 80% is found in an ionic form, 20% as an uncharged species. Safe clinical use for routine diagnosis in humans is possible.