In Vivo Micron-Scale Arthroscopic Imaging of Human Knee Osteoarthritis With Optical Coherence Tomography: Comparison With Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Arthroscopy
Kathy Zheng, MPH, Scott D. Martin, MD, Christopher H. Rashidifard, BA, Bin Liu, PhD, and Mark E. Brezinski, MD, PhD
Ms. Zheng is Research Assistant, Center for Optical Coherence Tomography and Optical Physics, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
Dr. Martin is Orthopedic Surgeon, Center for Optical Coherence Tomography and Optical Physics, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, and Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
Mr. Rashidifard is Research Assistant, and Dr. Liu is Scientist, Center for Optical Coherence Tomography and Optical Physics, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
Dr. Brezinski is Physician and Senior Scientist, Center for Optical Coherence Tomography and Optical Physics, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, and Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
Current treatments for osteoarthritis are pain relief and total joint arthroplasty. There is a clinical need for early osteoarthritis diagnostic methods for potential preventive interventions. The resolution achieved with radiography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and arthroscopy is too limited for the assessment of early disease. The high resolution, small fiber-optic probes, and real-time imaging of optical coherence tomography (OCT) makes this method ideal for assessing articular cartilage. In this article, we describe in vivo human arthroscopic OCT with qualitative baseline comparisons made with MRI and arthroscopy. Two-year MRI follow-ups are under way to quantitatively compare OCT with MRI and to assess the long-term outcomes of changes noted in the OCT images.