A Gamma-Ram radio-HPLC detector controlled by Laura chromatography data capture and analysis software is giving long-term results at Imperial College's Hammersmith Hospital Campus in London
The detector is used mainly for stability analysis of metabolites and model extractions, and for quality checks of the radio-pharmaceuticals used by the Faculty of Medicine's Molecular Therapy (Pet Oncology) Department.
"The Gamma-Ram has never malfunctioned once in the two years we have been using it and I see no degradation in the sensitivity of the detector, which is still giving excellent results," said the department's Graham Smith.
"Regarding Laura - and speaking as someone who has experience of using six different HPLC operating platforms - I can say that it is in a league of its own.
"It is intuitive, easy to use and versatile, and the graphics are very good".
The Gamma-Ram is custom-designed for working on a daily basis with soft gamma emitters such as Iodine-125 and Tc-99, and with intermediate gammas with energies up to about 1MeV.
It has a heavy lead shield and a well-type titanium-activated NaI crystal with greater stopping power for gammas, giving high counting efficiencies, even for more energetic isotopes, and superior resolution that makes dual isotope counting practical.
Laura is now available in Version 4, which is compatible with Microsoft Vista as well as NT, 2000, and XP, and has controls for more than 100 HPLC and liquid handling modules, all developed in cooperation with the manufacturers.
Copies for evaluating data away from the laboratory are available under a range of licences, giving greater flexibility with respect to the number of users and workstations involved and dove-tailing with IT deployment strategies such as client/server and Citrix.
