Terahertz pulsed imaging of knee cartilage

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common form of arthritis caused by cartilage degeneration. In this paper, we investigate the potential use of terahertz (THz) pulsed imaging to quantitatively measure the early symptoms of OA in an animal model. THz images of excised rabbit femoral condyles were taken. We observe THz waves reflected off different layers within samples and demonstrate that the optical delay between reflections can give a quantitative measure of the thicknesses of particular tissues within cartilage. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America