Raman Spectroscopy Applied to the Noninvasive Detection of Monosodium Urate Crystal Deposits

Declan J Curran; Laurence Rubin; Mark R Towler

doi:10.4137/CMAMD.S29061

Raman Spectroscopy Applied to the Noninvasive Detection of Monosodium Urate Crystal Deposits

Clin Med Insights Arthritis Musculoskelet Disord. 2015 Aug 18:8:55-8. doi: 10.4137/CMAMD.S29061. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Declan J Curran¹, Laurence Rubin², Mark R Towler³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada.
² Division of Rheumatology, St. Michael's Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
³ Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada. ; Department of Biomedical Engineering, University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Abstract

An off-the-shelf Raman Spectrometer (RS) was used to noninvasively determine the presence of monosodium urate (MSU) crystals on the metatarsophalangeal joint (MTPJ) of a single gout sufferer. The spectrum sourced from the clinically diagnosed gout sufferer was compared to that sourced from an age-matched healthy subject scanned using the same protocol. Minimal signal processing was conducted on both spectra. Peaks characteristic of MSU crystals were evident on the spectrum sourced from the gout sufferer and not on the spectrum from the healthy control.

Keywords: MSU; Raman; gout; monosodium; spectroscopy.