Diagnostic Devices
This section is dedicated to the normal operation of
the medical device(s) used to diagnose rheumatoid
arthritis. Considering that there are approximately
three methods for diagnosing RA, and one of them is
physical examination. Which leaves two devices to
reflect on, microscopes and x-rays (imaging)
specifically. Although x-rays can help with tracking
RA disease progression of joint damage relative to
time. Generally it is not a helpful means of the early
detection of the presence of rheumatoid arthritis.
This is due to x-rays inability to produce images of
soft tissues. Various imaging technologies may also
be ordered, such as magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI) and duel energy x-ray absorptiometry (dexa
scans or bone densitometry), for association to
osteoporosis. Which is all well and good, but those
things really work inversely to the diagnoses of RA
specifically. In that these technologies are used to
monitor progression and check off things that RA is
not. The primary method used for diagnosing
rheumatoid arthritis is running various blood tests.
An overlooked and fairly common laboratory device
used in doing things like blood tests, is the
microscope. The microscope is not something that
immediately comes to mind when we think
biomedical engineering technology, but sometimes
it’s the small everyday devices that contribute the
most. Now I will briefly discuss the various blood
tests involved in the diagnoses of RA, and then I will
break down a general biological microscope for
analysis.
these blood tests to grasp RA diagnoses. After all
this is essentially the measurand were looking for
using the microscope. I also am going to put in the
footnotes of this document a section on
immunoglobulins, because it is such a key
component in these laboratory tests. Therefore I
highly recommend reviewing that material first.
Starting with Rheumatoid Factor ( I