scholarly journals Exploring the Biomechanical Properties of the Human Cornea In Vivo Based on Corvis ST

Author(s):  
Di Zhang ◽  
Haixia Zhang ◽  
Lei Tian ◽  
Yan Zheng ◽  
Caiyun Fu ◽  
...  

Purpose: The aim of this study was to provide a method to determine corneal nonlinear viscoelastic properties based on the output data of corneal visualization Scheimpflug technology (Corvis ST).Methods: The Corvis ST data from 18 eyes of 12 healthy humans were collected. Based on the air-puff pressure and the corneal displacement from the Corvis ST test of normal human eyes, the work done by the air-puff attaining the whole corneal displacement was obtained. By applying a visco-hyperelastic strain energy density function of the cornea, in which the first-order Prony relaxation function and the first-order Ogden strain energy were employed, the corneal strain energy during the Corvis ST test was calculated. Then the work done by the air-puff attaining the whole corneal displacement was completely regarded as the strain energy of the cornea. The identification of the nonlinear viscoelastic parameters was carried out by optimizing the sum of difference squares of the work and the strain energy using the genetic algorithm.Results: The visco-hyperelastic model gave a good fit to the data of corneal strain energy with time during the Corvis ST test (R2 > 0.95). The determined Ogden model parameter μ ranged from 0.42 to 0.74 MPa, and α ranged from 32.76 to 55.63. The parameters A and τ in the first-order Prony function were 0.09–0.36 and 1.21–1.95 ms, respectively.Conclusion: It is feasible to determine the corneal nonlinear viscoelastic properties based on the corneal contour information and air-puff pressure of the Corvis ST test.

2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 261
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Boszczyk ◽  
Henryk Kasprzak ◽  
Joanna Przeździecka-Dołyk

Background: The process of rapid propagation of the corneal deformation in air puff tonometer depends not only on intraocular pressure, but also on the biomechanical properties of the cornea and anterior eye. One of the biomechanical properties of the cornea is viscoelasticity, which is the most visible in its high-speed deformations. It seems reasonable to link the corneal viscoelasticity parameter to two moments of the highest speed of corneal deformations, when the cornea buckles. The aim of this work is to present a method of determining the time and place of occurrence of corneal buckling, examine spatial and temporal dependencies between two corneal applanations and bucklings in the Corvis ST tonometer, and correlate these dependencies with corneal viscoelastic properties. Methods: Images of the horizontal cross section of the Corvis ST deformed cornea from the air puff tonometer Corvis ST were used. 14 volunteers participated in the study, each of them had one eye measured eight times. Mutual changes in the profile slopes of the deformed corneas were numerically determined. They describe pure corneal deformation, eliminating the influence of rotation, and displacement of the entire eyeball. For each point in the central area of the corneal profile, the maximum velocities of mutual slope changes accompanying the applanations were estimated. The times of their occurrence were adopted as buckling times. Results: The propagation of buckling along the corneal profile is presented, as well as the repeatability and mutual correlations between the buckling parameters and intraocular pressure. Based on the relationship between them, a new parameter describing corneal hysteresis: Corvis Viscoelasticity (CVE) is introduced. It is characterized by high repeatability: ICC = 0.82 (0.69–0.93 CI) and low and insignificant correlation with intraocular pressure: r = 0.25 (p-value = 0.38). Conclusion: The results show for the first time how to measure the corneal buckling and viscoelastic effects with Corvis ST. CVE is a new proposed biomechanical parameter related to the viscoelastic properties of the cornea, which has high repeatability for the examined subject. The distribution of its values is planned to be tested on different groups of patients in order to investigate its clinical applicability.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Zhang ◽  
Lei Tian ◽  
Li-Li Guo ◽  
Xiao Qin ◽  
Di Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: At present, the diagnosis of keratoconus with Pentacam (typical morphological measurement device), Ocular Response Analyzer (ORA) and Corneal Visualization Scheimpflug Technology (Corvis ST) (two main in vivo biomechanical measurement devices), is mainly for clinical keratoconus (CKC), and the analysis of diagnostic performance is only for the comparison of single output parameters, and the total number of parameters is not complete. Therefore, we intend to use the above three devices to more comprehensively evaluate the ability of the parameters reflecting the morphological and biomechanical properties of the cornea to distinguish keratoconus, especially contralateral normal eye of unilateral keratoconus, that is, the forme fruste keratoconus (FFKC), so as to to obtain further reference for early diagnosis of keratoconus.Methods: Normal eyes (n = 50), CKC eyes (n = 45), and FFKC eyes (n = 15) were analyzed using Pentacam, Corvis ST, and ORA. Stepwise logistic regression of all parameters was performed to obtain the optimal combination model capable of distinguishing CKC, FFKC from normal, named SLR1 and SLR2, respectively. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were applied to determine the predictive accuracy of the parameters and the two combination models, as described by the area under the curve (AUC). AUCs were compared using the DeLong method. Results: The SLR1 model included only the TBI output by Pentacam, while the SLR2 model included the morphological parameter F.Ele.Th, and two parameters from the Corvis ST, HC DfA, and SP-A1. The majority of the parameters had sufficient strength to differentiate the CKC from normal corneas. Even the seven separate parameters and the SLR1 model had a discrimination efficiency of 100%. The predictive accuracy of the parameters was moderate for eyes with FFKC, and the SLR2 model (0.965) presented an excellent AUC, followed by TBI, F.Ele.Th and BAD-D.Conclusion: The F.Ele.Th from Pentacam was the most sensitive morphological parameter for FFKC, and the combination of F.Ele.Th, HC DfA and SP-A1 made the diagnosis of FFKC more efficient. The CRF and CH output by ORA did not improve the combined diagnosis, despite the corneal combination of morphological and biomechanical properties that optimized the diagnosis of FFKC.


TAPPI Journal ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 641-649
Author(s):  
JOSHUA OMAMBALA ◽  
CARL MCINTYRE

The vast majority of tissue production uses creping to achieve the required set of properties on the base sheet. The Yankee coating helps to develop the desired crepe that in turn determines properties such as bulk and softness. The adhesion of the sheet to the Yankee surface is a very important characteristic to consider in achieving the desired crepe. The coating mix usually consists of the adhesive, modifier, and release. A good combination of these components is essential to achieving the desired properties of the tissue or towel, which often are determined by trials on the machine that can be time consuming and lead to costly rejects. In this paper, five compositions of an industrial Yankee coating adhesive, modifier, and release were examined rheologically. The weight ratio of the adhesive was kept constant at 30% in all five compositions and the modifier and release ratios were varied. The normal force and work done by the different compositions have been shown at various temperatures simulating that of the Yankee surface, and the oscillatory test was carried out to explain the linear and nonlinear viscoelastic characteristic of the optimal coating composition.


Life ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 515
Author(s):  
Andrea Cugno ◽  
Alex Marki ◽  
Klaus Ley

Leukocytes, including neutrophils, which are propelled by blood flow, can roll on inflamed endothelium using transient bonds between selectins and their ligands, and integrins and their ligands. When such receptor–ligand bonds last long enough, the leukocyte microvilli become extended and eventually form thin, 20 m long tethers. Tether formation can be observed in blood vessels in vivo and in microfluidic flow chambers. Tethers can also be extracted using micropipette aspiration, biomembrane force probe, optical trap, or atomic force microscopy approaches. Here, we review the biomechanical properties of leukocyte tethers as gleaned from such measurements and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. We also review and discuss viscoelastic models that describe the dependence of tether formation on time, force, rate of loading, and cell activation. We close by emphasizing the need to combine experimental observations with quantitative models and computer simulations to understand how tether formation is affected by membrane tension, membrane reservoir, and interactions of the membrane with the cytoskeleton.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 2590
Author(s):  
Che-Yu Lin ◽  
Ke-Vin Chang

Most biomaterials and tissues are viscoelastic; thus, evaluating viscoelastic properties is important for numerous biomedical applications. Compressional viscoelastography is an ultrasound imaging technique used for measuring the viscoelastic properties of biomaterials and tissues. It analyzes the creep behavior of a material under an external mechanical compression. The aim of this study is to use finite element analysis to investigate how loading conditions (the distribution of the applied compressional pressure on the surface of the sample) and boundary conditions (the fixation method used to stabilize the sample) can affect the measurement accuracy of compressional viscoelastography. The results show that loading and boundary conditions in computational simulations of compressional viscoelastography can severely affect the measurement accuracy of the viscoelastic properties of materials. The measurement can only be accurate if the compressional pressure is exerted on the entire top surface of the sample, as well as if the bottom of the sample is fixed only along the vertical direction. These findings imply that, in an experimental validation study, the phantom design should take into account that the surface area of the pressure plate must be equal to or larger than that of the top surface of the sample, and the sample should be placed directly on the testing platform without any fixation (such as a sample container). The findings indicate that when applying compressional viscoelastography to real tissues in vivo, consideration should be given to the representative loading and boundary conditions. The findings of the present simulation study will provide a reference for experimental phantom designs regarding loading and boundary conditions, as well as guidance towards validating the experimental results of compressional viscoelastography.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 674
Author(s):  
Óscar Darío García-García ◽  
Marwa El Soury ◽  
David González-Quevedo ◽  
David Sánchez-Porras ◽  
Jesús Chato-Astrain ◽  
...  

Acellular nerve allografts (ANGs) represent a promising alternative in nerve repair. Our aim is to improve the structural and biomechanical properties of biocompatible Sondell (SD) and Roosens (RS) based ANGs using genipin (GP) as a crosslinker agent ex vivo. The impact of two concentrations of GP (0.10% and 0.25%) on Wistar rat sciatic nerve-derived ANGs was assessed at the histological, biomechanical, and biocompatibility levels. Histology confirmed the differences between SD and RS procedures, but not remarkable changes were induced by GP, which helped to preserve the nerve histological pattern. Tensile test revealed that GP enhanced the biomechanical properties of SD and RS ANGs, being the crosslinked RS ANGs more comparable to the native nerves used as control. The evaluation of the ANGs biocompatibility conducted with adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells cultured within the ANGs confirmed a high degree of biocompatibility in all ANGs, especially in RS and RS-GP 0.10% ANGs. Finally, this study demonstrates that the use of GP could be an efficient alternative to improve the biomechanical properties of ANGs with a slight impact on the biocompatibility and histological pattern. For these reasons, we hypothesize that our novel crosslinked ANGs could be a suitable alternative for future in vivo preclinical studies.


Author(s):  
Zhong Li ◽  
Yikang Bi ◽  
Qi Wu ◽  
Chao Chen ◽  
Lu Zhou ◽  
...  

AbstractTo evaluate the performance of a composite scaffold of Wharton’s jelly (WJ) and chondroitin sulfate (CS) and the effect of the composite scaffold loaded with human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (hUCMSCs) in repairing articular cartilage defects, two experiments were carried out. The in vitro experiments involved identification of the hUCMSCs, construction of the biomimetic composite scaffolds by the physical and chemical crosslinking of WJ and CS, and testing of the biomechanical properties of both the composite scaffold and the WJ scaffold. In the in vivo experiments, composite scaffolds loaded with hUCMSCs and WJ scaffolds loaded with hUCMSCs were applied to repair articular cartilage defects in the rat knee. Moreover, their repair effects were evaluated by the unaided eye, histological observations, and the immunogenicity of scaffolds and hUCMSCs. We found that in vitro, the Young’s modulus of the composite scaffold (WJ-CS) was higher than that of the WJ scaffold. In vivo, the composite scaffold loaded with hUCMSCs repaired rat cartilage defects better than did the WJ scaffold loaded with hUCMSCs. Both the scaffold and hUCMSCs showed low immunogenicity. These results demonstrate that the in vitro construction of a human-derived WJ-CS composite scaffold enhances the biomechanical properties of WJ and that the repair of knee cartilage defects in rats is better with the composite scaffold than with the single WJ scaffold if the scaffold is loaded with hUCMSCs.


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