Quantification of joint inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis by time-resolved diffuse optical spectroscopy and tracer kinetic modeling
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
1-1-2015
Journal
Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE
URL with Digital Object Identifier
10.1117/12.2079811
Abstract
© 2015 SPIE. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is characterized by chronic synovial inflammation, which can cause progressive joint damage and disability. Diffuse optical spectroscopy (DOS) and imaging have the potential to become potent monitoring tools for RA. We devised a method that combined time-resolved DOS and tracer kinetics modeling to rapidly and reliably quantify blood flow in the joint. Preliminary results obtained from two animals show that the technique can detect joint inflammation as early as 5 days after onset.