Overall Radio-HPLC Design

The separation and detection of radioactive tracers by high performance liquid chromatography (radio-HPLC) incorporates many of the same design considerations of conventional (nonradio) HPLC. There are several excellent books that describe the principles of HPLC and contain additional specialized applications and considerations not covered in this short chapter f [1–4]. Some design features described in the following pages are not unique to radio-HPLC, but particular emphasis will be placed on considerations that may not be important in conventional HPLC. This chapter is arranged so that some descriptive chromatography topics relevant to later discussion are contained in the Introduction. The essential constituents of a radio-HPLC system are presented in the section entitled Components of the Basic System, and some design variations are discussed in A More Complex Radio- HPLC System. Several design options are examined in the section entitled Additional Considerations, and the decision processes involved in choosing specific options are illustrated in A Specialized HPLC System.