| dc.description.abstract | The presented research aims to develop an alternative and potentially superior method for diagnosing Glaucoma by relating IOP to deformation in different layers of corneal tissue via Fourier Domain Optical Coherence Tomography (FD-OCT), a non-invasive imaging technique. Glaucoma is a collection of disorders that results in damage to the optic nerve (cranial nerve II), which is responsible for relaying information from the retina to the brain. Although Glaucoma is incurable, surgery and medication can hinder its progression and prevent further damage to the optic nerve. Consequently, early detection of Glaucoma is imperative to minimize its noxious effects. Tonometry, a contemporary method used to test for Glaucoma, measures intraocular pressure (IOP) by relating the force of the tonometer to the resulting deformation of the ocular globe. However, data attained via tonometry is often unreliable due to the variations of ocular biomechanical properties from patient to patient. Using FD-OCT, depth profile images of rabbit cornea at different levels of intraocular pressure were attained post mortem.
The rabbit corneas were placed on an artificial anterior chamber; IOP was manipulated using water and a monometer. A correlation between fluctuations in the mechanical properties of the tissue and the differing levels of intraocular pressure was derived via different texture analysis methods, including the use of gray level co-occurrence matrices and different statistical calculations. Although the correlation attained was not robust, this study takes the first step to solidify a relationship between intraocular pressure and the mechanical properties of corneal tissue via FD-OCT. | en |
