2020/08/02 by Matthew J. Goodwin, Joshua Workman, Goodwin, Matthew +5 · 1 citation
Engineering · Medicine · #Optical Coherence Tomography Applications #Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Imaging #Infrared Thermography in Medicine
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2008.00598
Significance: Non-invasive determination of structural changes in articular\ncartilage immediately after impact and rehydration provides insight into the\nresponse and recovery of the soft tissue, as well as provides a potential\nmethodology for clinicians to quantify early degenerative changes.\n Approach: A custom-designed impact testing rig was used to deliver 0.9 J and\n1.4 J impact energies to bovine articular cartilage. A total of 55 (n=28\nhealthy, n=27 mildly degenerate) cartilage-on-bone samples were imaged before,\nimmediately after, and 3 hours after impact. PS-OCT images were analysed to\nassess changes relating to surface irregularity, optical attenuation, and\nbirefringence.\n Results: Mildly degenerate cartilage exhibits a significant change in\nbirefringence following 1.4 J impact energies compared to healthy samples which\nis believed to be attributable to degenerate cartilage being unable to fully\nutilise the fluid phase to distribute and dampen the energy. After rehydration,\nthe polarisation-sensitive images appear to `optically-recover' reducing the\nreliability of birefringence as an absolute metric. Surface irregularity and\noptical attenuation encode diagnostically relevant information and may serve as\nmarkers to predict the mechanical response of articular cartilage.\n