Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE), the mainstream treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is a method of blocking tumor blood vessels with a mixture of lipiodol and chemotherapeutics. And the contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) is the commonly used way for follow-up of HCC after TACE. However, it is noteworthy that when lipiodol deposition plays an embolic effect, it also produces high-density artifacts in CT images. These artifacts usually conceal the enhancement effect of iodine contrast agents. As a result, the residual region is difficult to be visualized. To overcome this obstacle, we developed one kind of Lu³⁺/Gd³⁺ doped fluoride nanoprobe modified with Dp-PEG2000 to realize CT/MRI dual-modality imaging of HCC. Compared with lipiodol or ioversol, the obtained PEGylated product LG-PEG demonstrated a greater density value in high keV CT images. In vitro experiments showed the lipiodol artifacts can be removed in virtual non-contrast (VNC) imaging, but the density of ioversol was also removed at the same time. However, the LG-PEG synthesized in this work can still maintain a high density in VNC imaging, which indicates that LG-PEG can exploit its advantages to the full in VNC imaging. Furthermore, LG-PEG successfully exerted tumor enhancement effects in the in vivo VNC images of HCC with lipiodol deposition. In addition, LG-PEG exhibited a strong T₂ enhancement effect with low biological toxicity and less side-effect on the main organ and blood. Thus, the LG-PEG reported in this research can serve as an effective and safe VNC contrast agent for HCC imaging after TACE.

经导管动脉化疗栓塞术 (TACE) 是肝细胞癌 (HCC) 的主流治疗方法，是一种使用碘油和化疗药物的混合物阻断肿瘤血管的方法。而对比增强计算机断层扫描（CT）是TACE后HCC随访的常用方法。但值得注意的是，当碘油沉积起到栓塞作用时，也会在 CT 图像中产生高密度伪影。这些伪影通常掩盖了碘造影剂的增强效果。结果，残留区域难以可视化。为了克服这个障碍，我们开发了一种Lu ³⁺ /Gd ³⁺Dp-PEG2000修饰掺杂氟化物纳米探针实现HCC CT/MRI双模态成像[J]. 与碘油或碘佛醇相比，所得聚乙二醇化产物LG-PEG在高keV CT图像中表现出更大的密度值。体外实验表明，在虚拟非对比（VNC）成像中可以去除碘油伪影，但同时也去除了碘佛醇的密度。然而，本工作合成的 LG-PEG 在 VNC 成像中仍然可以保持高密度，这表明 LG-PEG 可以在 VNC 成像中充分发挥其优势。此外，LG-PEG 在具有碘油沉积的 HCC的体内VNC 图像中成功地发挥了肿瘤增强作用。此外，LG-PEG表现出很强的T ₂增强作用，生物毒性低，对主要器官和血液的副作用小。因此，本研究报道的 LG-PEG 可作为 TACE 后 HCC 成像的有效且安全的 VNC 造影剂。