Application Of Innovative Laser Research Could Lead To Earlier Bone Disorder Diagnosis

The research team hope ultimately that the method can beused both to detect and screen for early signs of diseases such asosteoarthritis and osteoporosis.

"This exciting new approach has been developed bycombining expertise in multidisciplinary research collaboration over a numberof years. This has now culminated in a system for minimally invasive assessmentof skeletal tissues and could with further development - form the basis of arapid safe economical screening system for musculoskeletal disease", saidProfessor Allen Goodship (UCL), the project Principal Investigator.

The basic technique, devised and patented in the CentralLaser Facility at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), wasdeveloped for this application through an ongoing collaboration with the Institute of Orthopaedics and MusculoskeletalScience, University College London (UCL). The concept has been evaluated onbone samples with differing chemical composition but never before in a hospitalon patients - as will happen in the next few years.

Professor Pavel Matousek who is an STFC physicist and anhonorary Professor at UCL is the lead inventor of the technique, he says;"The new method effectively suppresses otherwise blinding interferingsignals from skin, making it possible to see subtle chemical changes within allthe components of bone through the skin, without the need for a biopsies. Thenew approach is also able to provide far more information than conventionalX-ray based systems that are limited to the mineral components only. The datacan be related to the chemistry of bone tissue in its entirety and theanalytical chemistry side of the work is supported by STFC's Professor TonyParker, head of the Lasers for Science Facility at the Central Laser Facilityand also an honorary Professor at UCL.

This translational phase of the research has been madepossible by a £1.7 million grant awarded by the Engineering and PhysicalSciences Research Council (EPSRC) and through an ongoing partnership with UCLwhich demonstrated the feasibility of applying this technology to bonecomposition and with the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RHOH) inStanmore, Middlesex where the trials will take place. ''This project adds tothe ongoing role of the RNOH to lead in innovative approaches to the managementof complex musculoskeletal disease. This project has the potential to provide ameans of detection and confirmation of some of the rare bone disorders that arestill difficult to diagnose. It could make significant contributions toreducing the burden of musculoskeletal disease and associated chronic painexperienced by these patients'' said Dr Richard Keen, a co-investigator andconsultant rheumatologist at RNOH.

Whilst the technique is promising, it has to be fullyunderstood. If these trials are successful it may take several years for themethod to become fully realised for diagnostic use in the mainstream healthservice.