Several investigators have reported retention of indium-111 in infectious foci after intravenous injection of 111In-labelled immunoglobulin G (IgG). With this study we intended to test the hypothesis that, upon administration of 111In-diethylene triamine penta-acetic acid (DTPA-IgG), 111In is retained in the infectious foci after dissociation from IgG. Therefore we measured the tissue distribution of double-labelled 111In-DTPA-IgG-(carbon-14) in rats with a focal infection and compared the results with corresponding data for DTPA-IgG-(14C). DTPA-conjugated IgG was labelled with 111In via citrate transchelation. 111In-DTPA-IgG and DTPA-IgG were labelled with 14C through methylation. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and instant thin-layer chromatography analysis were performed to test the in vitro stability of the labelled proteins. Young Wistar rats with a Staphylococcus aureus infection of the left calf muscle were injected intravenously with 0.2 ml of a solution containing either 0.4 MBq 111In and 30 kBq 14C or 30 kBq 14C labelled to 80 micrograms IgG. Groups of five rats were sacrificed at 2, 6, 24, and 48 h. p.i. Activity uptake was determined for plasma, urine, abscess, muscle and various other tissues. Averages and standard deviations were calculated for groups of five rats. HPLC analysis was performed on plasma and urine samples taken up to 48 h p.i. The radiochemical purity of the IgG preparations was > 95%. The labelled preparations appeared stable in vitro.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)