Abstract
.Significance: It is generally agreed that the corneal mechanical properties are strongly linked to many eye diseases and could be used to assess disease progression and response to therapies. Elastography is the most notable method of assessing corneal mechanical properties, but it generally requires some type of external excitation to induce a measurable displacement in the tissue.Aim: We present Heartbeat Optical Coherence Elastography (Hb-OCE), a truly passive method that can measure the elasticity of the cornea based on intrinsic corneal displacements induced by the heartbeat.Approach: Hb-OCE measurements were performed in untreated and UV-A/riboflavin cross-linked porcine corneas ex vivo, and a distinct difference in strain was detected. Furthermore, a partially cross-linked cornea was also assessed, and the treated and untreated areas were similarly distinguished.Results: Our results suggest that Hb-OCE can spatially map displacements in the cornea induced by small fluctuations in intraocular pressure, similar to what is induced by the heartbeat.Conclusions: The described technique opens the possibility for completely passive and noncontact in vivo assessment of corneal stiffness.
Highlights
Corneal pathologies such as corneal dystrophy, keratoconus, and corneal ectasia due to surgical complications can lead to corneal deformation and tissue damage, as well as underlying changes in intrinsic corneal biomechanical properties.[1,2] Detecting the changes in these biomechanical properties is an emerging method for detecting ocular diseases, monitoring disease progression, and evaluating therapies because it is postulated that changes in tissue biomechanical properties can preclude structural or functional changes.[3]
Our results suggest that heartbeat optical coherence elastography (OCE) (Hb-OCE) can spatially map displacements in the cornea induced by small fluctuations in intraocular pressure, similar to what is induced by the heartbeat
We introduce heartbeat OCE (Hb-OCE) to assess the corneal biomechanical response to varying fluctuations in intraocular pressure (IOP) that simulate the heartbeat-induced ocular pulse in an ex vivo porcine cornea model
Summary
Corneal pathologies such as corneal dystrophy, keratoconus, and corneal ectasia due to surgical complications can lead to corneal deformation and tissue damage, as well as underlying changes in intrinsic corneal biomechanical properties.[1,2] Detecting the changes in these biomechanical properties is an emerging method for detecting ocular diseases, monitoring disease progression, and evaluating therapies because it is postulated that changes in tissue biomechanical properties can preclude structural or functional changes.[3] Noncontact applanation tonometers such as the CorVis ST (OCULUS Optikgerate GmbH, Germany) and the ORA (Reichert Technologies, USA) have long been being used to measure corneal biomechanical properties by analyzing the response of the cornea to a large burst of air (inducing displacement of mm-scale) These methods have had conflicting results in measuring mechanical property changes because separating the effects from corneal geometry, biomechanical properties, and intraocular pressure (IOP) is a complex problem that is currently under investigation.[4,5,6,7,8] Brillouin. This technique was used to distinguish tissue stiffness between normal and crosslinked (CXL) corneas
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