Fluorine18FLTQualityChecker
Fluorine-18 FLT
Utility description: Fluorine-18 FLT
Fluorine-18 FLT Quality Checker — Fluorine-18 FLT for PET Proliferation Imaging
ℹ️ Utility checks critical parameters of [18F]FLT (3'-deoxy-3'-[18F]fluorothymidine):
• Radionuclidic purity (≥99.9%)
• Radiochemical purity (≥95%)
• Free Fluoride-18 impurity (≤5.0%)
• Precursor/Cold FLT impurity (≤2.0%)
• Specific activity (≥50 GBq/μmol)
• Residual solvents (ethanol), pH, endotoxins, sterility
⚠️ CRITICAL: Free Fluoride-18 >5.0% → accumulation in bones, risk of false positives in bone metastasis detection!
Usage:
Fluorine18FLTQualityChecker.exe → demo mode (console output)
Fluorine18FLTQualityChecker.exe input.csv output.json → evaluate your data
Input format:
BatchNumber,RadionuclidicPurityPercent,RadiochemicalPurityPercent,FreeFluoridePercent,PrecursorImpurityPercent,pH,EndotoxinsEU,SterilityTest,HeavyMetalsPPM,ResidualEthanolPercent,SpecificActivityGBqPerUmol
Example (sterility: 0=sterile, 1=contaminated):
F18-FLT-2026-001,99.99,98.0,1.5,0.5,7.0,30.0,0,2,5.0,120.0
— WHY IS THIS NEEDED?
[18F]FLT is used for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) to assess cellular proliferation:
• Mechanism: FLT is a substrate for Thymidine Kinase 1 (TK1), activity of which correlates with DNA synthesis phase and cell division
• Main application: Oncology (assessment of tumor aggressiveness, early response to chemo- or radiotherapy)
• Advantage over FDG: More specific for proliferation, less dependent on inflammation
⚠️ CRITICAL:
• Radiochemical purity ≥95% — ensures specific phosphorylation by TK1 enzyme inside cells
• Free Fluoride ≤5.0% — [18F]fluoride is actively taken up by bone tissue. When assessing proliferation in bone marrow or bone metastases, this creates critical background
• Specific activity ≥50 GBq/μmol — necessary to minimize competitive inhibition of TK1 enzyme by cold thymidine/FLT
• Residual Solvents (Ethanol) — controlled per ICH Q3C
• pH 4.5–8.5 — physiological range
• Endotoxins ≤175 EU/vial — safety standard
• Sterility — MANDATORY
Key features:
• Specific control of free fluoride due to risk of bone artifacts
• Specific activity control to ensure sensitivity to TK1 expression levels
• Residual solvent check
Critical parameters:
• Radionuclidic purity: ≥99.9%
• Radiochemical purity: ≥95.0%
• Free Fluoride-18: ≤5.0%
• Precursor/Cold drug: ≤2.0%
• Specific activity: ≥50.0 GBq/μmol
• Ethanol: ≤10.0%
• pH: 4.5–8.5
• Endotoxins: ≤175 EU/vial
• Sterility: no microbial growth
• Heavy metals: ≤10 ppm
💡 Usage tips:
1. Radiochemical purity and free fluoride content determined by TLC or HPLC
2. For TLC, systems such as acetonitrile/water are often used
3. Specific activity calculated from activity to molar amount ratio (HPLC-UV)
4. FLT has lower uptake in the brain compared to FDG, making it useful for assessing brain tumors
⚠️ Note: Unlike FDG, which reflects glucose metabolism, FLT is directly linked to DNA synthesis. Therefore, quality control must ensure the absence of impurities that could inhibit or compete for enzymes in the thymidine salvage pathway.input.csv
BatchNumber,RadionuclidicPurityPercent,RadiochemicalPurityPercent,FreeFluoridePercent,PrecursorImpurityPercent,pH,EndotoxinsEU,SterilityTest,HeavyMetalsPPM,ResidualEthanolPercent,SpecificActivityGBqPerUmol F18-FLT-2026-001,99.99,98.0,1.5,0.5,7.0,30.0,0,2,5.0,120.0 F18-FLT-2026-002,99.95,94.0,6.5,1.0,6.8,100.0,0,5,8.0,40.0 F18-FLT-2026-003,99.98,99.0,0.5,0.2,7.2,10.0,0,1,2.0,200.0
URS & FS — User Requirements and Functional Specification
This document describes the controlled interface and behaviour of Fluorine18FLTQualityChecker for Fluorine-18 FLT.
Domain limits and critical parameters
- ℹ️ Utility checks critical parameters of [18F]FLT (3'-deoxy-3'-[18F]fluorothymidine):
- • Radionuclidic purity (≥99.9%)
- • Radiochemical purity (≥95%)
- • Free Fluoride-18 impurity (≤5.0%)
- • Precursor/Cold FLT impurity (≤2.0%)
- • Specific activity (≥50 GBq/μmol)
- • Residual solvents (ethanol), pH, endotoxins, sterility
- ⚠️ CRITICAL: Free Fluoride-18 >5.0% → accumulation in bones, risk of false positives in bone metastasis detection!
- BatchNumber,RadionuclidicPurityPercent,RadiochemicalPurityPercent,FreeFluoridePercent,PrecursorImpurityPercent,pH,EndotoxinsEU,SterilityTest,HeavyMetalsPPM,ResidualEthanolPercent,SpecificActivityGBqPerUmol
- Example (sterility: 0=sterile, 1=contaminated):
- ⚠️ CRITICAL:
- • Radiochemical purity ≥95% — ensures specific phosphorylation by TK1 enzyme inside cells
- • Free Fluoride ≤5.0% — [18F]fluoride is actively taken up by bone tissue. When assessing proliferation in bone marrow or bone metastases, this creates critical background
- • Specific activity ≥50 GBq/μmol — necessary to minimize competitive inhibition of TK1 enzyme by cold thymidine/FLT
URS — User Requirements Specification
| ID | Requirement | Criticality | Acceptance criterion |
|---|---|---|---|
| URS-001 | The utility shall accept an input.csv file with the exact headers defined in the data contract. | High | The file is processed without manual header editing. |
| URS-002 | The utility shall perform deterministic QC evaluation for Fluorine-18 FLT using input values, approved limits and domain rules. | High | Each input row receives a PASS / WARNING / FAIL status. |
| URS-003 | The utility shall validate mandatory fields, data types, numeric ranges, units and pharmaceutical/radiochemical plausibility. | High | Schema and conversion errors are explicitly reported. |
| URS-004 | The utility shall identify critical deviations related to radionuclidic purity, radiochemical purity, free radionuclide, impurities, pH, endotoxins and sterility when such fields are present. | High | A critical deviation causes FAIL or a separate critical finding. |
| URS-005 | The utility shall generate output.json with machine-readable results, source values, warnings and failures. | High | JSON is suitable for LIMS/ELN/MES integration and QA/QC review. |
| URS-006 | The utility shall not use machine learning to decide conformance. | Medium | The result is based on explicit rules, thresholds and input values. |
| URS-007 | The utility shall preserve traceability between batch number, input values, applied rules and final status. | High | The output contains the batch identifier and the list of checked parameters. |
| URS-008 | The documentation shall support IQ/OQ preparation and inspection discussion with FDA/EMA/Roszdravnadzor or local regulators. | Medium | URS & FS, input.csv/output.json contract and test scenarios are supplied with the utility. |
input.csv contract
| # | Field | Type | Sample | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BatchNumber | string | F18-FLT-2026-001 | Batch or lot identifier used for traceability. |
| 2 | RadionuclidicPurityPercent | string | 99.99 | Radionuclidic purity; a critical radiation-safety and impurity parameter. |
| 3 | RadiochemicalPurityPercent | string | 98.0 | Radiochemical purity; confirms the labelled chemical form and binding quality. |
| 4 | FreeFluoridePercent | string | 1.5 | Free radionuclide / unbound species; important for non-target uptake and toxicity. |
| 5 | PrecursorImpurityPercent | string | 0.5 | Controlled impurity or residual material. |
| 6 | pH | decimal | 7.0 | Solution pH; relevant for stability, compatibility and administration. |
| 7 | EndotoxinsEU | decimal | 30.0 | Bacterial endotoxins; critical for parenteral administration. |
| 8 | SterilityTest | flag / boolean | 0 | Sterility result; critical release parameter. |
| 9 | HeavyMetalsPPM | decimal | 2 | Elemental impurity / metal residue parameter. |
| 10 | ResidualEthanolPercent | string | 5.0 | Controlled input parameter used by the deterministic QC rules. |
| 11 | SpecificActivityGBqPerUmol | decimal | 120.0 | Radioactivity value used for release, decay or dose-related assessment. |
BatchNumber,RadionuclidicPurityPercent,RadiochemicalPurityPercent,FreeFluoridePercent,PrecursorImpurityPercent,pH,EndotoxinsEU,SterilityTest,HeavyMetalsPPM,ResidualEthanolPercent,SpecificActivityGBqPerUmol F18-FLT-2026-001,99.99,98.0,1.5,0.5,7.0,30.0,0,2,5.0,120.0 F18-FLT-2026-002,99.95,94.0,6.5,1.0,6.8,100.0,0,5,8.0,40.0 F18-FLT-2026-003,99.98,99.0,0.5,0.2,7.2,10.0,0,1,2.0,200.0
FS — Functional Specification
| ID | Function | Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| FS-001 | CSV import | Read input.csv in UTF-8/CSV-compatible format and validate the header and expected columns. |
| FS-002 | Schema validation | Check mandatory fields and column count; report unknown or missing key fields. |
| FS-003 | Type conversion | Convert numeric, flag and text values; invalid formats are recorded as row-level errors. |
| FS-004 | Domain rule engine | Apply domain rules for Fluorine-18 FLT, including critical limits from the utility description and approved specification. |
| FS-005 | Status aggregation | Produce final status: FAIL for critical failure, WARNING for non-critical deviation, PASS for conformance. |
| FS-006 | JSON export | Write output.json with detailed checks, source values, warnings, failures and critical findings. |
| FS-007 | Audit support | Keep the result structure suitable for review, deviation investigation, calculation reproduction and IQ/OQ preparation. |
| FS-008 | Integration contract | Support the production scenario: LIMS/ELN/MES creates input.csv, the utility returns output.json, the portal displays description and documentation. |
Example output.json
{
"utilityId": "fluorine18-flt-quality-checker",
"api": "Fluorine-18 FLT",
"overallStatus": "PASS|WARNING|FAIL",
"sourceFile": "input.csv",
"checks": [
{
"parameter": "BatchNumber",
"value": "F18-FLT-2026-001",
"status": "PASS|WARNING|FAIL",
"message": "Rule-based check result"
},
{
"parameter": "RadionuclidicPurityPercent",
"value": "99.99",
"status": "PASS|WARNING|FAIL",
"message": "Rule-based check result"
},
{
"parameter": "RadiochemicalPurityPercent",
"value": "98.0",
"status": "PASS|WARNING|FAIL",
"message": "Rule-based check result"
},
{
"parameter": "FreeFluoridePercent",
"value": "1.5",
"status": "PASS|WARNING|FAIL",
"message": "Rule-based check result"
},
{
"parameter": "PrecursorImpurityPercent",
"value": "0.5",
"status": "PASS|WARNING|FAIL",
"message": "Rule-based check result"
},
{
"parameter": "pH",
"value": "7.0",
"status": "PASS|WARNING|FAIL",
"message": "Rule-based check result"
},
{
"parameter": "EndotoxinsEU",
"value": "30.0",
"status": "PASS|WARNING|FAIL",
"message": "Rule-based check result"
},
{
"parameter": "SterilityTest",
"value": "0",
"status": "PASS|WARNING|FAIL",
"message": "Rule-based check result"
}
],
"criticalFindings": []
}
OQ/PQ test scenarios
| ID | Scenario | Expected result |
|---|---|---|
| OQ-001 | Valid sample row | PASS or acceptable WARNING according to the rules. |
| OQ-002 | Mandatory column missing | Schema error or FAIL. |
| OQ-003 | Non-numeric value in numeric field | Type-conversion error. |
| OQ-004 | Critical parameter outside limit | FAIL and critical finding. |
| PQ-001 | User real batch/lot | Reviewed result with input.csv and output.json retained. |
QA/QC and change control
- Do not rename columns without updating the validator and test set.
- Retain
input.csv,output.json, executable version and checksum. - Before production use, perform IQ/OQ/PQ or equivalent CSV/CSA verification.
- Critical radiopharmaceutical limits must be verified against the approved specification and local SOPs.
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