The chemistry of rhenium and technetium as related to the use of isotopes of these elements in therapeutic and diagnostic nuclear medicine.

Abstract The β emitting isotopes 186 Re and 188 Re are logical choices on which to base therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals that might be expected to be analogous to diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals based on 99m Tc. However, the chemistry of rhenium is sufficiently different from that of technetium so that the development of Re radiopharmaceuticals often cannot be predicated on the known chemistry and biological behavior of 99m Tc radiopharmaceuticals. The relevant chemical differences involve the greater stability of the higher oxidation states of Re (and thus the greater tendency of reduced Re radiopharmaceuticals to undergo re-oxidation to perrhenate), and the greater substitution inertness of reduced Re complexes. These differences are illustrated (1) in the preparation and use of 186 Re (Sn)-HEDP and 99m Tc(Sn)-HEDP diphosphonate radiopharmaceuticals designed, respectively, for palliative therapy and diagnosis of metastatic cancer to bone, and (2) in the preparation and biodistribution of tr -[ 186 Re(DMPE) 2 Cl 2 ] + and [ 186 Re(DMPE) 3 ] + , analogs to the potential myocardial perfusion imaging agents tr -[ 99m Tc(DMPE) 2 Cl 2 ] + and [ 99m Tc(DMPE) 3 ] + . [HEDP = (1-hydroxyethylidene)diphosphonate; DMPE = 1,2-bis(dimethylphosphino)ethane].