With the capability of assessing high resolution optical contrast in soft tissues, photoacoustic imaging (PAI) can offer valuable structural and functional information of human joints, and hold potential for diagnosis and treatment monitoring of inflammatory arthritis. Recent studies have demonstrated that PAI can map 2D and 3D morphology of the cartilage, synovium, vascularity, and bone tissue in human peripheral joints. Initial trials with patients affected by inflammatory arthritis have also suggested that PAI can detect the hemodynamic properties in articular tissues as well as their changes due to active inflammation. This review focuses on the recent progress in technical development of PAI for human musculoskeletal imaging and inflammation detection. PAI can provide non-invasive and non-ionizing serial measurements for monitoring of therapeutic interventions with the potential for higher sensitivity than existing imaging modalities such as ultrasound. However, further investigation is needed to validate the value of PAI in rheumatology clinical settings.

具有评估软组织中高分辨率光学对比度的能力，光声成像（PAI）可以提供有价值的人体关节结构和功能信息，并具有诊断和治疗炎症性关节炎的潜力。最近的研究表明，PAI可以绘制人类外周关节中软骨，滑膜，血管和骨组织的2D和3D形态图。对患有炎性关节炎的患者的初步试验还表明，PAI可以检测出关节组织的血液动力学特性以及由于活动性炎症引起的变化。这篇综述集中在用于人体肌肉骨骼成像和炎症检测的PAI技术开发中的最新进展。PAI可以提供非侵入性和非电离的串行测量，以监测治疗干预措施，具有比现有成像方式（如超声）更高的灵敏度。但是，需要进一步研究以验证PAI在风湿病临床环境中的价值。