The analysis of laser light scattering during rheumatoid arthritis by image segmentation

Abstract

Optical imaging in biomedicine is governed by the light absorption and scattering interaction on microscopic and macroscopic constituents in the medium. Therefore, light scattering characteristics of human tissue correlates with the stage of some diseases. In the near infrared range the scattering event with the coefficient approximately two orders of magnitude greater than absorption plays a dominant role. The potential of an experimental laser diode based setup for the transillumination of rheumatoid finger joints and the pattern of the stray light detection are demonstrated. For evaluating the scattering light images a new non-local image segmentation method is presented. Regarding a noisy picture as a multicomponent mixture of gray scaled particles, this method minimizes a non-convex free energy functional under the constraint of mass conservation of the components. Contrary to constructing equilibrium distributions as steady states of an adequate evolution equation, a direct descent method for the free energy is used to separate the components of the image.Segmentation of scattering laser light images from healthy and rheumatoid finger joints

Diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis using light: correction of motion artefacts and color visualization of multispectral images

“…The investigations in patients showed significant differences regarding the intensity distributions of the scattered-light images during follow-up after administration of suitable drugs [5,6]. Clinical findings of the examined joints corresponded with the results of the optical diagnosis in more than 80% of all cases.…”

“…The patterns of this result image are evaluated for their diagnostic information in contrast to former methods [6,7]. These features are emphasized further by pseudocoloration.…”

Pseudo colour visualization of fused multispectral laser scattering images for optical diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis

“…For this reason, an optimum algorithm must be found which accentuates and depicts diagnostically essential visual contents. information in contrast to former methods [10,11]. These features are emphasized further by pseudo-coloration.…”

Optical imaging: new tools for arthritis

“…For further development of this method, more advanced image processing techniques have been explored to evaluate the directly recorded transillumination pictures, including deconvolution, segmentation and reconstruction. 38–40 …”

“…For further development of this method, more advanced image processing techniques have been explored to evaluate the directly recorded transillumination pictures, including deconvolution, segmentation and reconstruction. [38][39][40] In the transillumination imaging method described above, continuous wave (cw) light from a laser diode is used as the illumination source. Ultrafast optical techniques have also been used for optical imaging of joints.…”