Material Properties from Air Puff Corneal Deformation by Numerical Simulations on Model Corneas.

OBJECTIVE: To validate a new method for reconstructing corneal biomechanical properties from air puff corneal deformation images using hydrogel polymer model corneas and porcine corneas.

METHODS: Air puff deformation imaging was performed on model eyes with artificial corneas made out of three different hydrogel materials with three different thicknesses and on porcine eyes, at constant intraocular pressure of 15 mmHg. The cornea air puff deformation was modeled using finite elements, and hyperelastic material parameters were determined through inverse modeling, minimizing the difference between the simulated and the measured central deformation amplitude and central-peripheral deformation ratio parameters. Uniaxial tensile tests were performed on the model cornea materials as well as on corneal strips, and the results were compared to stress-strain simulations assuming the reconstructed material parameters.

RESULTS: The measured and simulated spatial and temporal profiles of the air puff deformation tests were in good agreement (< 7% average discrepancy). The simulated stress-strain curves of the studied hydrogel corneal materials fitted well the experimental stress-strain curves from uniaxial extensiometry, particularly in the 0-0.4 range. Equivalent Young´s moduli of the reconstructed material properties from air-puff were 0.31, 0.58 and 0.48 MPa for the three polymer materials respectively which differed < 1% from those obtained from extensiometry. The simulations of the same material but different thickness resulted in similar reconstructed material properties. The air-puff reconstructed average equivalent Young´s modulus of the porcine corneas was 1.3 MPa, within 18% of that obtained from extensiometry.

CONCLUSIONS: Air puff corneal deformation imaging with inverse finite element modeling can retrieve material properties of model hydrogel polymer corneas and real corneas, which are in good correspondence with those obtained from uniaxial extensiometry, suggesting that this is a promising technique to retrieve quantitative corneal biomechanical properties.