Abstract
The elasticity mapping of individual layers in the cornea using non-destructive elastography techniques advances diagnosis and monitoring of ocular diseases and treatments in ophthalmology. However, transient Lamb waves, currently used in most dynamic optical coherence and ultrasound elastography techniques, diminish the translation of wave speed into shear/Young’s modulus. Here, we present reverberant 3D optical coherence elastography (Rev3D-OCE), a novel approach leveraging the physical properties of diffuse fields in detecting elasticity gradients not only in the lateral direction, but also along the depth axis of the cornea. A Monte Carlo analysis, finite element simulations, and experiments in layered phantoms are conducted to validate the technique and to characterize the axial elastography resolution. Experiments in ex vivo porcine cornea at different intraocular pressures reveal that Rev3D-OCE enables the elastic characterization of single layers that matches the anatomical description of corneal layers with unprecedented contrast in the dynamic OCE field.
Highlights
The elasticity mapping of individual layers in the cornea using non-destructive elastography techniques advances diagnosis and monitoring of ocular diseases and treatments in ophthalmology
The elastic characterization of individual corneal layers using non-destructive techniques is of great importance in ophthalmology, for advancing the understanding, diagnosis, and monitoring of ocular diseases and treatments, and for the successful modeling of patientspecific corneas, and the development of synthetic and tissueengineered corneal substitutes[19,20]
We present reverberant 3D optical coherence elastography (Rev3D-OCE), leveraging the physical properties of diffuse fields in detecting elasticity gradients along the depth axis of the cornea
Summary
The elasticity mapping of individual layers in the cornea using non-destructive elastography techniques advances diagnosis and monitoring of ocular diseases and treatments in ophthalmology. The cornea is a highly organized tissue containing at least five layers with differentiated structure, mechanical properties, and physiological functions: epithelium, Bowman’s membrane, stroma, Descemet’s membrane, and endothelium[4] Various corneal dystrophies, such as keratoconus, may affect single layers[5,6,7] or all the layers of the cornea[8]. The elastic characterization of individual corneal layers using non-destructive techniques is of great importance in ophthalmology, for advancing the understanding, diagnosis, and monitoring of ocular diseases and treatments, and for the successful modeling of patientspecific corneas, and the development of synthetic and tissueengineered corneal substitutes[19,20]. Due to limitations in spatial resolution, displacement sensitivity, and the need for a coupling material such as gel or water, the application of USE in the cornea has been very restrictive
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