Dextran-coated Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles as a contrast agent in thermoacoustic tomography for hepatocellular carcinoma detection

Microwave-induced thermoacoustic tomography can provide a novel imaging modality for clinical detection. Significant progress has been made in the past several years in microwave-induced thermoacoustic tomography. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of using dextran-coated Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles as a contrast agent in thermoacoustic tomography for hepatocellular carcinoma detection. Dextran-coated Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles administered intravenously are phagocytosed by resident Kupffer cells in normal reticuloendothelial system (RES) within the liver, but are not retained in tumor tissue. Consequently, there are significant differences in thermoacoustic signal intensity between normal RES and tumors, which result in increased lesion conspicuity and detectability. This provides the improvement of lesion-to-liver contrast for thermoacoustic tomography. A fast thermoacoustic computed tomography system with a multielement linear transducer array was used to image cancerous liver tissue with circular scanning. The results show that the system can provide molecular imaging with functionalized contrast agents for high-contrast detecting hepatocellular carcinoma and has the potential to become a novel approach for clinical diagnosis in the future.