Technetium ⁹⁹ᵐTc mertiatide

Technetium Tc 99m mertiatide is a renal imaging agent for use in the diagnosis of congenital and acquired abnormalities, renal failure, urinary tract obstruction, and calculi in adults and pediatric patients. It is a diagnostic aid in providing renal function, split function, renal angiograms, and renogram curves for whole kidney and renal cortex.

Following intravenous injection of technetium Tc 99m mertiatide, the appearance, concentration, and excretion of the tracer in the kidney can be monitored to assess renal function. Although technetium Tc 99m mertiatide is highly plasma protein bound following intravenous injection, the protein binding is reversible and the tracer is rapidly excreted by the kidneys via active tubular secretion and glomerular filtration.

Following intravenous injection of technetium Tc 99m mertiatide in normal volunteers, 89% of the tracer was plasma protein bound. In healthy subjects with normal renal function (mean serum creatinine 1.2 mg/dL) technetium Tc 99m mertiatide was rapidly cleared from the blood. The plasma clearance was approximately 0.3 liters/minute and the amount of technetium Tc 99m mertiatide excreted in the urine in three hours was nearly 90% of the dose.

In a study performed in three patients with renal impairment (serum creatinine greater than 6.3 mg/dL), there was decreased blood clearance and a decrease in the amount excreted in the urine over three hours. In these patients, 78% of the tracer was plasma protein bound after intravenous injection. The mean plasma clearance of technetium Tc 99m mertiatide was 0.03 liters/minute and 21.3% was excreted in three hours on average. In both healthy subjects and patients with renal impairment, the plasma concentration-time profile showed a biexponential decline.