In-vivo 3D corneal elasticity using air-coupled ultrasound optical coherence elastography

Zi Jin; Reza Khazaeinezhad; Jiang Zhu; Junxiao Yu; Yueqiao Qu; Youmin He; Yan Li; Tomas E Gomez Alvarez-Arenas; Fan Lu; Zhongping Chen

doi:10.1364/BOE.10.006272

In-vivo 3D corneal elasticity using air-coupled ultrasound optical coherence elastography

Biomed Opt Express. 2019 Nov 14;10(12):6272-6285. doi: 10.1364/BOE.10.006272. eCollection 2019 Dec 1.

Authors

Zi Jin^{1

2

3}, Reza Khazaeinezhad^{1

3}, Jiang Zhu¹, Junxiao Yu¹, Yueqiao Qu¹, Youmin He¹, Yan Li¹, Tomas E Gomez Alvarez-Arenas⁴, Fan Lu^{2

5}, Zhongping Chen^{1

6}

Affiliations

¹ Beckman Laser Institute, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California 92612, USA.
² School of Ophthalmology and Optometry, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325003, Zhejiang, China.
³ These authors contributed equally to this work.
⁴ Institute of Physical and Information Technologies, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), 28006 Madrid, Spain.
⁵ lufan62@mail.eye.ac.cn.
⁶ z2chen@uci.edu.

Abstract

Corneal elasticity can resist elastic deformations under intraocular pressure to maintain normal corneal shape, which has a great influence on corneal refractive function. Elastography can measure tissue elasticity and provide a powerful tool for clinical diagnosis. Air-coupled ultrasound optical coherence elastography (OCE) has been used in the quantification of ex-vivo corneal elasticity. However, in-vivo imaging of the cornea remains a challenge. The 3D air-coupled ultrasound OCE with an axial motion artifacts correction algorithm was developed to distinguish the in-vivo cornea vibration from the axial eye motion in anesthetized rabbits and visualize the elastic wave propagation clearly. The elastic wave group velocity of in-vivo rabbit cornea was measured to be 5.96 ± 0.55 m/s, which agrees with other studies. The results show the potential of 3D air-coupled ultrasound OCE with an axial motion artifacts correction algorithm for quantitative in-vivo assessment of corneal elasticity.