Optical spectroscopy in the diagnostics of early osteoarthritis (literature review)

Today medicine is actively developing new methods of clinical, including intraoperative, diagnostics. Current imaging techniques help to reveal morphological features, but do not provide information about the cellular composition and biochemical state of the tissue. Nevertheless, to solve a wide range of clinical problems, it is necessary to develop new methods and devices that allow fast and reliable biochemical diagnostics of intra-articular structures, in particular, osteoarthritis. The clinical analytical methods to perform such tasks is due to the subjectivity of existing methods for diagnosing intra-articular lesions. The purpose of this review is to provide information on existing methods for diagnostics and identifying early osteoarthritis.Conclusions: Optical methods allow to analyze the biochemical state of intra-articular tissues and give high-quality and representative results, and also have the potential to use arthroscopic diagnostics. Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy is a new cost-effective imaging technique that can help in the early diagnosis of osteoarthritis, monitoring the progression of damage to the cartilage-subchondral bone complex, and thus making timely and personalized decisions regarding treatment tactics.Changes in the biochemical composition and morphological disorders in the articular cartilage, subchondral bone, as well as menisci and ligaments of the knee joint during the progression of OA need further systematic study.