Tomographic x-ray guided three-dimensional diffuse optical imaging of osteoarthritis in the finger joints: A clinical study

To investigate the typical optical findings that can be used to characterize osteoarthritis, the distal interphalangeal finger joints from 40 subjects including 22 patients and 18 healthy controllers were examined clinically and scanned by a novel hybrid imaging system. The hybrid imaging platform integrated a C-arm based x-ray tomosynthetic system with a multi-channel optic-fiber based diffuse optical imaging system. Optical images were recovered qualitatively and quantitatively based on a regularization-based reconstruction algorithm that can incorporate the fine structural maps obtained from x-ray as a priori spatial information into diffuse optical tomography reconstruction procedures. Our findings suggest statistically significant differences between healthy and osteoarthritis finger joints. X-ray guided diffuse optical imaging may not only detect radiologic features supporting the development of an inflammatory disorder but may also help discriminate specific optical features that differ between osteoarthritic and healthy joints. These quantitative optical features are also potentially important for a better understanding of inflammatory arthritis in humans.