Feasibility of photoacoustic/ultrasound imaging of synovitis in finger joints using a point-of-care system

We evaluate a portable ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging (PAI) system for the feasibility of a point-of-care assessment of clinically evident synovitis. Inflamed and non-inflamed proximal interphalangeal joints of 10 patients were examined and compared with joints from 7 healthy volunteers. PAI scans, ultrasound power Doppler (US-PD), and clinical examination were performed. We quantified the amount of photoacoustic (PA) signal using a region of interest (ROI) drawn over the hypertrophic joint space. PAI response was increased 4 to 10 fold when comparing inflamed with contralateral non-inflamed joints and with joints from healthy volunteers (p < 0.001 for both). US-PD and PAI were strongly correlated (Spearman's ρ = 0.64, with 95% CI: 0.42, 0.79). Hence, PAI using a compact handheld probe is capable of detecting clinically evident synovitis. This motivates further investigation into the predictive value of PAI, including multispectral PAI, with other established modalities such as US-PD or MRI.