Image Segmentation for the Investigation of Scattered-Light Images when Laser-Optically Diagnosing Rheumatoid Arthritis

With 1–2% of the population affected, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most frequent inflammatory arthropathy. In most cases, RA initially affects the small joints, only, especially the finger joints. The inflammations of the joints caused by this disease usually start with a synovitis. At the same time, there is a change in the filtration properties of the synovialis, which increases the enzyme rate within the synovia thus accelerating the progress of inflammation. In a later stage, granulation and neovascularisation occur in the synovia (Figs. 1 and 2), which may finally lead to the destruction of cartilage and bone structures [1]. So, it is rather unsurprising that the optical parameters [2, 3] (Table 1) change in these early stages of the disease