title: Detecting early stage osteoarthritis by optical coherence tomography?
abstract: Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common chronic disease of our joints, manifested by a dynamically increasing degeneration of hyaline articular cartilage (AC). While currently no therapy can reverse this process, the few available treatment options are hampered by the inability of early diagnosis. Loss of cartilage surface, or extracellular matrix (ECM), integrity is considered the earliest sign of OA. Despite the increasing number of imaging modalities surprisingly few imaging biomarkers exist. In this narrative review, recent developments in optical coherence tomography are critically evaluated for their potential to assess different aspects of AC quality as biomarkers of OA. Special attention is paid to imaging surface irregularities, ECM organization and the evaluation of posttraumatic injuries by light-based modalities.
authors: a Department of Orthopaedic Surgery , University Hospital RWTH Aachen University , Aachen , Germany .
authors: Holger
authors: H
authors: Jahr
authors: b Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology , Aachen , Germany , and.
authors: Nicolai
authors: N
authors: Brill
authors: a Department of Orthopaedic Surgery , University Hospital RWTH Aachen University , Aachen , Germany .|c Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology , University Hospital RWTH Aachen University , Aachen , Germany.
authors: Sven
authors: S
authors: Nebelung
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002358:Cartilage, Articular / Q000473:pathology*; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D007596:Joints / Q000473:pathology*; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000473:pathology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence
keywords: Cartilage surface; dry biomarkers; matrix integrity; optical coherence tomography (OCT); osteoarthritis; polarization sensitive OCT; review