Terahertz Pulse Imaging of Human Articular Cartilage

Terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy (TDS) provides powerful means to image biomedical structures that cannot be obtained by other imaging techniques. In this work, we report THz imaging of human cartilage by using THz TDS. In general, degeneration of cartilage is accompanied by alteration of structural, compositional and molecular level in cartilage matrix. We performed THz pulse imaging experiments for human articular cartilage tissues. Each THz image distinguishes between the normal and abnormal cartilage tissues and demonstrates the possibility of THz pulse imaging as a diagnostic tool in biomedicine.