A new method for determining the diagnostic parameters of articular cartilage: from theory to practice

Introduction. Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most spread joint pathologies. Timely diagnostics of this disease at the early stages plays an important role for planning following treatment tactics. Unfortunately, the available clinical methods lack the ability to detect cartilage changes at the initial grades of OA.

The aim of the study. To study the capabilities of optical spectroscopy, in particular – its usage in intraoperative diagnostics of the cartilage condition.

Materials and methods. Analysis of the literature data about methods for diagnosing changes in cartilage tissue, with further conducting our own clinical experiment – intraoperative application of the spectroscopy to assess the cartilage condition at 33-year-old patient Sh. with the defect of the cartilage tissue, according to the MRI investigation and visual examination during the arthroscopic surgery.

Results. Existing imaging methods, that can be used in vivo, require further development for usage in the early diagnosis of osteoarthritis, while NIR-spectroscopy is suitable for this task.

Conclusion. The spectroscopy method is a promising direction in the diagnostics of cartilage condition, which can be used intraoperatively without damaging the cartilage tissue.

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