Radiochemical methodology constitutes the most important base for the successful functioning of a PET group in the routine production and development of radiopharmaceuticals. Of the several hundred products which have been labelled with positron emitters during the past two decades, about 35 are presently considered to be of major interest. This field has advanced over the past fifteen years to reach a level where guidelines can now be suggested. Chapters of this book deal with each of the main methodological aspects of the chemistry needed to develop an effective radiopharmaceutical, namely radionuclide production, automation and metabolite analysis. A further chapter on QA/QC is written by a broadly-based expert group and is designed to provide a guideline and a base for future monographs and regulations on major PET radiopharmaceutials of today.This book should help the increasing number of scientists who are now entering the field of PET to appreciate the methodological aspects that are normally addressed by chemists in relation to PET radiopharmaceuticals; it provides many practical guidelines and should promote early success in their own endeavours, since these will often necessarily begin by establishing chemical methodology of the kind discussed here.
