Radionuclide cholescintigraphic imaging: an evaluation of several 99mTc labelled hepatobiliary radiopharmaceuticals.

Recently, much interest has been shown in the development of 99mTc labelled cholescintigraphic agents for imaging the hepatobiliary tract. In this study six cholescintigraphic agents were compared in rabbits with respect to transit efficiency through the liver and the halftime on the washout portion of the liver time-activity curve. The agents compared were p-butyl-IDA (PBIDA), diisopropyl-IDA (DISIDA), two mebrofenin (MBF) agents and two pyridoxylaminates (PDA). Best transit efficiencies were obtained with MBF (34.1 and 31.2%) followed by PDA (27.7 and 24.9%) while DISIDA (23%) and PBIDA (19.3%) were the lowest. The same phenomenon was observed regarding the washout halftime, with MBF the most rapid (6.3 and 5.9 min), PDA more prolonged (10.1 and 12.0 min) and DISIDA and PBIDA the slowest (23.0 and 23.2 min). This study confirms the difference in physiological behaviour of the various cholescintigraphic agents and shows identical flow patterns for locally produced and imported compounds.