Cornea, the window of the eye, is critical for vision. The precise understanding of corneal biomechanical properties remains an unmet clinical need in early diagnosis and customized treatments for corneal blindness.
Our research group has developed a novel non-contact, non-invasive AuT-OCE method to quantify corneal elasticity. Because of the anisotropic corneal property due to its collagen structure, a nearly incompressible transversely isotropic (NITI) model was developed to characterize its elasticity. It has been shown that in-plane tensile and out-of-plane shear properties are defined by different moduli, E and G, respectively.
Our research offers new opportunities to develop a personalized biomechanical model based on quantitative maps of corneal mechanical moduli to quantify both biomechanical properties and predict final corneal shape, leading to potential early diagnosis and more precise surgical planning.
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