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Abstract
Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common chronic disease of our joints, manifested by a dynamically increasing degeneration of hyaline articular cartilage (AC). While currently no therapy can reverse this process, the few available treatment options are hampered by the inability of early diagnosis. Loss of cartilage surface, or extracellular matrix (ECM), integrity is considered the earliest sign of OA. Despite the increasing number of imaging modalities surprisingly few imaging biomarkers exist. In this narrative review, recent developments in optical coherence tomography are critically evaluated for their potential to assess different aspects of AC quality as biomarkers of OA. Special attention is paid to imaging surface irregularities, ECM organization and the evaluation of posttraumatic injuries by light-based modalities.
Acknowledgements
H.J. is grateful for the support by the Aachen Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research (IZKF) and H.J. and S.N. are both indebted to the START-Program of the Faculty of Medicine of the RWTH Aachen.
Declaration of interest
The authors report no declarations of interests. H.J. is a member of D-BOARD; this project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement No. 305815.