IOVS
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

(Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science. 2007;48:2540-2544.)
© 2007 by The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Inc.
DOI:  10.1167/iovs.06-0719
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (2)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Johnson, C. S.
Right arrow Articles by Afshari, N. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Johnson, C. S.
Right arrow Articles by Afshari, N. A.

Role of Corneal Elasticity in Damping of Intraocular Pressure

C. Starck Johnson,1 Shahzad I. Mian,2 Sayoko Moroi,2 David Epstein,1 Joseph Izatt,1 and Natalie A. Afshari1

1From the Duke University Eye Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina; and the 2Division of Cornea and External Disease and Refractive Surgery, Department of Ophthalmology, W. K. Kellogg Eye Center, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

PURPOSE. To determine corneal elasticity and its contribution in damping acute intraocular pressure spikes.

METHODS. Twenty corneas with intact scleral rims were excised from human donor eyes and mounted on an artificial anterior chamber. A watertight seal was obtained with 17 corneas. Saline was infused into the chamber at a rate of 10 mL/h, and subsequent changes in pressure were measured to generate a pressure–volume relationship. Real-time anterior segment OCT was used to measure the change in radius of curvature and corneal thickness in nine eyes.

RESULTS. The pressure-versus-volume curves of all corneal–scleral buttons were concave-up asymptotes, demonstrating elasticity. The range of the slope was 0.34 to 1.6 ± 0.29 mm Hg/µL. The mean change in the radius of curvature in the nine eyes that were visualized by optical coherence tomography (OCT) was 247 ± 106 µm (range, 168–412 µm). The OCT image was centered on the epithelial surface. In two eyes, the entire cornea was visible by OCT throughout the course of the experiment, and corneal thickness was measured and found to decrease by 116 ± 4 µm.

CONCLUSIONS. Human eye bank corneas demonstrate elasticity ex vivo, with expansion and thinning in response to increases in anterior chamber pressure. These elastic properties may serve as a buffering mechanism for microvolumetric changes in the eye, thus protecting the eye from intraocular pressure surges in vivo.




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 IOVSHome page
A. P. Wells, D. F. Garway-Heath, A. Poostchi, T. Wong, K. C. Y. Chan, and N. Sachdev
Corneal Hysteresis but Not Corneal Thickness Correlates with Optic Nerve Surface Compliance in Glaucoma Patients
Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci., August 1, 2008; 49(8): 3262 - 3268.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2007 by the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology