Finger scanner ‘could facilitate early diagnosis of arthritis’

Researchers are developing a promising new finger scanning device with the potential to enhance the diagnosis of arthritis.

The IACOBUS project at the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT in Germany is dedicated to creating a 3D finger scanner that searches joints for sites of inflammation, as well as other pathological changes.

It operates using an optoacoustic imaging technique, which sees the fingers subjected to extremely short laser light pulses of variable wavelength. The tissue experiences a minimal warming under these conditions, which causes the tissue to expand a small amount.

This in turn results in slight pressure pulses that the scanner can register using an acoustic transducer. It allows the device to pinpoint exactly where inflammation is forming, while the additional use of a hyperspectral imaging system helps to further enhance the results.

Dr Marc Fournelle, IACOBUS project manager at Fraunhofer, said: "One of the advantages of this method is that it enables us to detect the condition while it is still in its early stages, since many forms of arthritis affect the fingers first."

A European consortium composed of several research institutions and companies are working together to develop the device, which could be an affordable new diagnostic tool.