Imaging of osteoarthritic cartilage with optical coherence tomography: micron-structure and polarization sensitivity

Summary form only given. Osteoarthritis is a leading cause of debilitation world wide. It results when degeneration occurs of joint cartilage. Recently, techniques have become available to slow or arrest cartilage degeneration at early stages. Since the cartilage surface is only a few millimeters in thickness, a method of high-resolution imaging is needed to diagnose the early cartilage abnormalities and monitor the effectiveness of therapy. Preliminary work has demonstrated the feasibility for optical coherence tomography (OCT) in assessing joint cartilage. In this study, we use single detector, polarization sensitive OCT as an adjunct to structural imaging. In addition, we demonstrate the high-speed in vivo OCT imaging system.