Anti-phase microwave illumination-based thermoacoustic tomography for in vivo detection of rheumatoid arthritis in the finger joints

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) impacts about 1% of the population worldwide. Here, anti-phase microwave illumination-based thermoacoustic tomography (TAT) was used to in vivo detect RA in the finger joints. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed to verify TAT findings. The results showed that the anti-phase TAT images of the RA joints displayed abnormalities compared to the healthy ones, and they matched well with the MRI images. These prove that anti-phase TAT is able to visualize bone marrow edema and synovitis, which are important features associated with early RA. This work provides a foundation for further TAT development and validation of clinical application in detection of RA.