Experiences with the Cyclone^® 3 Oxygen 15 generator

The Cyclone^® 3 is a simple compact low energy cyclotron operated via keyboard. It generates a 50 µA beam of 3.6 MeV deuterons which strike a nitrogen gas target to produce oxygen 15 via the ¹⁴N(d,n)¹⁵O reaction. The oxygen 15 is piped 80m to a novel bedside infuser which produces ¹⁵O water without the disadvantages of earlier techniques. 25 µA of beam provides an adequate supply of ¹⁵O water for patient blood flow studies. The availability of ¹⁵O water "on tap" is of great assistance in running the extremely full clinical research schedule at Hammersmith. This technique has enormous potential in clinical PET programmes. 

E. Conard, J-L Morelle, JC Clark, DB Mackay