Abstract
The water distribution in human osteoarthritic articular cartilage has been quantitatively characterized using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz TDS). We measured the refractive index and absorption coefficient of cartilage tissue in the THz frequency range. Based on our measurements, the estimated water content was observed to decrease with increasing depth cartilage tissue, showing good agreement with a previous report based on destructive biochemical methods.
Highlights
Osteoarthritis (OA), one of the most prevalent chronic diseases in the elderly, is characterized by progressive degeneration of cartilage
Cartilage degeneration is affected by biochemical alterations, including an increase in water content and the loss of proteoglycans [1–3]
Human osteoarthritic articular cartilage tissues were obtained from the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Ajou University Hospital, Korea
Summary
Osteoarthritis (OA), one of the most prevalent chronic diseases in the elderly, is characterized by progressive degeneration of cartilage. Cartilage degeneration is affected by biochemical alterations, including an increase in water content and the loss of proteoglycans [1–3]. Several studies have shown that the water content in osteoarthritic cartilage may increase by about 10% [4]. A precise measurement of the water content in cartilage can aid in the diagnosis of early-stage OA. Changes in the water content in the early stages of OA cannot be detected using current clinical techniques such as radiography and arthroscopy. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been used for the detection of water content in the early stages of OA [5,6]
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