Cargando…

High-frequency ultrasound detects biomechanical weakening in keratoconus with lower stiffness at higher grade

In vivo biomechanical characterization of the cornea remains a challenge. We have developed a high-frequency ultrasound elastography method, the ocular pulse elastography (OPE), to measure corneal axial displacement (CAD) induced by the ocular pulse. Here we compared CAD and a stiffness index derive...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Kwok, Sunny, Pan, Xueliang, Liu, William, Hendershot, Andrew, Liu, Jun
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9299312/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35857808
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0271749
_version_ 1784750939418132480
author Kwok, Sunny
Pan, Xueliang
Liu, William
Hendershot, Andrew
Liu, Jun
author_facet Kwok, Sunny
Pan, Xueliang
Liu, William
Hendershot, Andrew
Liu, Jun
author_sort Kwok, Sunny
collection PubMed
description In vivo biomechanical characterization of the cornea remains a challenge. We have developed a high-frequency ultrasound elastography method, the ocular pulse elastography (OPE), to measure corneal axial displacement (CAD) induced by the ocular pulse. Here we compared CAD and a stiffness index derived from CAD between keratoconus patients and normal controls. We also explored the trend of these parameters with keratoconus grade. Twenty normal subjects and twenty keratoconus patients were recruited in this study. Corneal topography, tomography, intraocular pressure (IOP) and ocular pulse amplitude (OPA) were obtained in each measured eye. The cornea’s heartbeat-induced cyclic axial displacements were measured by high-frequency (50 MHz) ultrasound. A corneal stiffness index (CSI) was derived from CAD normalized against OPA. CAD and CSI were compared between normal and keratoconus groups, and across keratoconus grades. Keratoconus corneas had significantly greater CAD and lower CSI than normal controls (p’s<0.01). Both parameters correlated strongly with grade, in which CAD increased significantly (p = 0.002) and CSI decreased significantly (p = 0.011) with grade. These results suggested a biomechanical weakening in keratoconus which worsens at higher disease severity. This study also demonstrated the ability of high-frequency ultrasound elastography to provide a safe, quick, and accurate evaluation of the cornea’s biomechanical condition in vivo. The OPE-measured biomechanical metrics, when integrated with existing diagnostic criteria, may aid the decision-making in the early and definitive diagnosis and staging of keratoconus.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9299312
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-92993122022-07-21 High-frequency ultrasound detects biomechanical weakening in keratoconus with lower stiffness at higher grade Kwok, Sunny Pan, Xueliang Liu, William Hendershot, Andrew Liu, Jun PLoS One Research Article In vivo biomechanical characterization of the cornea remains a challenge. We have developed a high-frequency ultrasound elastography method, the ocular pulse elastography (OPE), to measure corneal axial displacement (CAD) induced by the ocular pulse. Here we compared CAD and a stiffness index derived from CAD between keratoconus patients and normal controls. We also explored the trend of these parameters with keratoconus grade. Twenty normal subjects and twenty keratoconus patients were recruited in this study. Corneal topography, tomography, intraocular pressure (IOP) and ocular pulse amplitude (OPA) were obtained in each measured eye. The cornea’s heartbeat-induced cyclic axial displacements were measured by high-frequency (50 MHz) ultrasound. A corneal stiffness index (CSI) was derived from CAD normalized against OPA. CAD and CSI were compared between normal and keratoconus groups, and across keratoconus grades. Keratoconus corneas had significantly greater CAD and lower CSI than normal controls (p’s<0.01). Both parameters correlated strongly with grade, in which CAD increased significantly (p = 0.002) and CSI decreased significantly (p = 0.011) with grade. These results suggested a biomechanical weakening in keratoconus which worsens at higher disease severity. This study also demonstrated the ability of high-frequency ultrasound elastography to provide a safe, quick, and accurate evaluation of the cornea’s biomechanical condition in vivo. The OPE-measured biomechanical metrics, when integrated with existing diagnostic criteria, may aid the decision-making in the early and definitive diagnosis and staging of keratoconus. Public Library of Science 2022-07-20 /pmc/articles/PMC9299312/ /pubmed/35857808 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0271749 Text en © 2022 Kwok et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Kwok, Sunny
Pan, Xueliang
Liu, William
Hendershot, Andrew
Liu, Jun
High-frequency ultrasound detects biomechanical weakening in keratoconus with lower stiffness at higher grade
title High-frequency ultrasound detects biomechanical weakening in keratoconus with lower stiffness at higher grade
title_full High-frequency ultrasound detects biomechanical weakening in keratoconus with lower stiffness at higher grade
title_fullStr High-frequency ultrasound detects biomechanical weakening in keratoconus with lower stiffness at higher grade
title_full_unstemmed High-frequency ultrasound detects biomechanical weakening in keratoconus with lower stiffness at higher grade
title_short High-frequency ultrasound detects biomechanical weakening in keratoconus with lower stiffness at higher grade
title_sort high-frequency ultrasound detects biomechanical weakening in keratoconus with lower stiffness at higher grade
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9299312/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35857808
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0271749
work_keys_str_mv AT kwoksunny highfrequencyultrasounddetectsbiomechanicalweakeninginkeratoconuswithlowerstiffnessathighergrade
AT panxueliang highfrequencyultrasounddetectsbiomechanicalweakeninginkeratoconuswithlowerstiffnessathighergrade
AT liuwilliam highfrequencyultrasounddetectsbiomechanicalweakeninginkeratoconuswithlowerstiffnessathighergrade
AT hendershotandrew highfrequencyultrasounddetectsbiomechanicalweakeninginkeratoconuswithlowerstiffnessathighergrade
AT liujun highfrequencyultrasounddetectsbiomechanicalweakeninginkeratoconuswithlowerstiffnessathighergrade