Blood clearance rates of technetium-99m albumin preparations: concise communication.

Technetium-labeled human serum albumin (HSA) is extensively used as a cardiac imaging agent. An evaluation of the blood-clearance rates of electrolytically reduced HSA (EHSA) and four stannous-reduced HSA (SnHSA) preparations was conducted in dogs, and was compared with that of radioiodinated HSA (IHSA). The EHSA was found to have a clearance rate only about 1.5 times that of IHSA, whereas the SnHSA agents were cleared at two to five times the rate of IHSA. Thus, EHSA has definite advantages over SnHSA preparations for the purposes of blood-volume determinations required in quantitative cardiac studies and for the reduction of extravascular background in the accurate delineation of cardiac boundaries.