Florbetapir (18F)

Florbetapir (F) (trade name AMYViD; also known as florbetapir-fluorine-18 or F-AV-45) is a PET scanning radiopharmaceutical compound containing the radionuclide fluorine-18, recently FDA approved as a diagnostic tool for Alzheimer's disease. Florbetapir, like Pittsburgh compound B (PiB), binds to beta-amyloid, however fluorine-18 has a half-life of 120 minutes, in contrast to PiB's radioactive half life of 20 minutes. Wong et al. found that the longer life allowed the tracer to accumulate significantly more in the brains of people with AD, particularly in the regions known to be associated with beta-amyloid deposits.