University of Houston, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Houston, Texas, United States.
University of Houston, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Houston, Texas, United States.
J Biomed Opt. 2021 Feb;26(2). doi: 10.1117/1.JBO.26.2.020502.
Mechanical assessment of the cornea can provide important structural and functional information regarding its health. Current clinically available tools are limited in their efficacy at measuring corneal mechanical properties. Elastography allows for the direct estimation of mechanical properties of tissues in vivo but is generally performed using external excitation force.
To show that heartbeat optical coherence elastography (Hb-OCE) can be used to assess the mechanical properties of the cornea in vivo.
Hb-OCE was utilized to detect Hb-induced deformations in the rabbit cornea in vivo without the need for external excitation. Furthermore, we demonstrate how this technique can distinguish corneal stiffness between untreated (UT) and crosslinked (CXL) tissue.
Our results demonstrate that stiffness changes in the cornea can be detected using only the Hb-induced deformations in the cornea. Additionally, we demonstrate a statistically significant difference in strain between the UT and CXL corneas.
Hb-OCE may be an effective tool for assessing the mechanical properties of the cornea in vivo without the need for external excitation. This tool may be effective for clinical assessment of corneal mechanical properties because it only requires optical coherence tomography imaging and data processing.
机械评估角膜可以提供有关其健康的重要结构和功能信息。目前临床可用的工具在测量角膜机械性能方面的效果有限。弹性成像允许直接估计组织的机械性能，但通常使用外部激励力进行。
展示心跳光相干弹性成像 (Hb-OCE) 可用于体内评估角膜的机械性能。
Hb-OCE 用于在体内检测兔角膜中的 Hb 诱导变形，而无需外部激励。此外，我们展示了该技术如何区分未经处理 (UT) 和交联 (CXL) 组织之间的角膜刚度。
我们的结果表明，仅使用角膜中的 Hb 诱导变形就可以检测到角膜刚度的变化。此外，我们还证明了 UT 和 CXL 角膜之间的应变存在统计学上的显著差异。
Hb-OCE 可能是一种无需外部激励即可有效评估活体角膜机械性能的工具。由于它仅需要光相干断层扫描成像和数据处理，因此该工具可能对临床评估角膜机械性能有效。
