Quantitative measures of corneal transparency, derived from objective analysis of depth-resolved corneal images, demonstrated with full-field optical coherence tomographic microscopy - Sorbonne Université
Journal Articles PLoS ONE Year : 2019

Quantitative measures of corneal transparency, derived from objective analysis of depth-resolved corneal images, demonstrated with full-field optical coherence tomographic microscopy

Abstract

Loss of corneal transparency, as occurs with various pathologies, infections, immune reactions, trauma, aging, and surgery, is a major cause of visual handicap worldwide. However, current means to assess corneal transparency are extremely limited and clinical and eye-bank practice usually involve a subjective and qualitative observation of opacities, sometimes with comparison against an arbitrary grading scale, by means of slit-lamp biomicroscopy. Here, we describe a novel objective optical data analysis-based method that enables quantifiable and standardized characterization of corneal transparency from depth-resolved corneal images, addressing the demand for such a means in both the laboratory and clinical ophthalmology setting. Our approach is based on a mathematical analysis of the acquired optical data with respect to the light attenuation from scattering processes in the corneal stroma. Applicable to any depth-resolved corneal imaging modality, it has been validated by means of full-field optical coherence tomographic microscopy (FF-OCT or FF-OCM). Specifically, our results on ex-vivo corneal specimens illustrate that 1) in homogeneous tissues, characterized by an exponential light attenuation with stromal depth (z), the computation of the scattering mean-free path (ls) from the rate of exponential decay allows quantification of the degree of transparency; 2) in heterogeneous tissues, identified by significant deviations from the normal exponential z -profile, a measure of exponential-decay model inadequacy (e.g., by computation of the Birge ratio) allows the estimation of severity of stromal heterogeneity, and the associated depth-dependent variations around the average ls enables precise localization of the pathology.
Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
journal.pone.0221707.pdf (1.87 Mo) Télécharger le fichier
Origin Publication funded by an institution
Loading...

Dates and versions

hal-02297695 , version 1 (26-09-2019)

Identifiers

Cite

Romain Bocheux, Pascal Pernot, Vincent Borderie, Karsten Plamann, Kristina Irsch. Quantitative measures of corneal transparency, derived from objective analysis of depth-resolved corneal images, demonstrated with full-field optical coherence tomographic microscopy. PLoS ONE, 2019, 14 (8), pp.e0221707. ⟨10.1371/journal.pone.0221707⟩. ⟨hal-02297695⟩
157 View
111 Download

Altmetric

Share

More