Hand Joint Position Analysis System for the Care of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Abstract

According to the studies carried out in advance, the medical area has analysed the patient's condition visually by applying a common methodology to all patients based on their knowledge of the disease, making a mistaken assessment due to the complexity of the disease, which varies according to the length of time the patient has been suffering from it. The problem posed by this disease rheumatoid arthritis is the bad evaluation by means of radiographs of the hands, relying on the criteria of the doctor when treating the disease with his experience, making serious mistakes when the quality of the image is not correct when interpreting a first stage disease with an advanced one, therefore, it is important to evaluate rheumatoid arthritis by means of an image treatment in a safe way for a better diagnosis of the patient. The aim of this research is to develop a hand joint position analysis system for the care of patients with rheumatoid arthritis to help doctors detect tuberculosis earlier and more accurately and to avoid prolonged infections that could be fatal for patients. The methodology used for this research is based on taking a computerized X-ray of both hands and applying image processing using a computer, the image processing is carried out using MATLAB by applying the various processing tools to detect these conditions. According to the tests performed, it was observed that the system detects the state of the patient with rheumatoid arthritis with an efficiency of 96.14% in its operation, standing out satisfactorily with respect to other systems for its high efficiency of image analysis of patients with the MATLAB tool. It concludes that this system can be used in different circumstances of the patient's condition, from the initial stage of arthritis to an advanced stage of the patient's disease. © 2025, Semarak Ilmu Publishing. All rights reserved.