Abstract
This study investigates the application of diode-based photoacoustic imaging (PAI) for monitoring treatment responses in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Diode-based PAI provides a non-invasive and real-time assessment of joint inflammation by visualizing changes in vascularization. We conducted the analysis based on physician-diagnosed RA patients and compared the PAI results between osteoarthritis, psoriatic arthritis, and lupus-induced arthritis. Our findings demonstrate that PAI effectively captures synovitis and vascularity and can discriminate RA from other types of arthritis as well as from healthy subjects, which is of great value for physicians in improving disease management. Moreover, we could demonstrate that PAI can detect early changes of inflammation in RA joints after treatment, correlating with improvements in clinical exams. The study highlights LED-based PAI as a promising tool for enhancing treatment monitoring and personalizing therapeutic approaches in RA management. Further research is recommended to validate these findings across larger populations.