Routine detection and identification of PET radiopharmaceuticals

The rapid identification of radiolabeled compounds would clearly be beneficial for applied clinical and preclinical tracers used for imaging with positron emission tomography (PET). The limited uptake of mass spectrometry in the imaging field has been due to several factors including concerns regarding adequate sensitivity, instrument footprint in the highly constrained space requirements for the majority of labs and high initial capital costs plus high ongoing maintenance costs.

The introduction of the expression Compact Mass Spectrometer (CMS) at the 2012 Spring ACS National Meeting addressed for the first time three of the concerns: space, capital cost and maintenance costs. Only the question of adequate sensitivity remained to be answered.