Finger joint imaging by laser transillumination computed tomography based on coherent detection imaging method

Abstract

In this research, we investigate the imaging properties of tansillumination laser CT system based on the coherent detection imaging (CDI) method, for early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, from the viewpoints of morphological and quantitative imaging. First, to investigate the morphological imaging ability, the index finger PIP joint of a healthy volunteer was imaged with the laser CT, X-ray CT, and MRI. By comparison of these images, we present that the laser CT delineates the bone region with high spatial resolution of sub-millimeters. Next, to investigate the quantitative imaging, three kinds of the physical phantoms simulating bone, made from polyurethane including different concentrations of CaCO₃, were imaged. We present that quantitative measurement is possible by demonstrating a satisfactory linear relationship between the averaged pixel value of the reconstructed images and the actual concentrations. These results demonstrate the feasibility of early diagnosis for rheumatoid arthritis.