Background, Motivation and Objective Synovial angiogenesis is an important characteristic feature in the development and perpetuation of inflammatory arthritis such as rheumatoid arthritis. The presence of hypervascularized synovial tissue is associated directly to disease activity. Due to the strong electromagnetic absorption of hemoglobin in the visible to near-infrared spectrum, the optical contrast presented by photoacoustic imaging (PAI) is intrinsically sensitive to the hemodynamic changes in synovial tissues, such as neoangiogenesis, hyperemia and hypoxia, and may shed new light in objective characterization of the chemical and physiological markers of synovitis.