Assessment of corneal burn severity by analyzing spatially-resolved maps of optical attenuation extracted from images of ophthalmic optical coherence tomography
Peter A. Chizhov1, Alexander A. Sovetsky1, Alexander L. Matveyev1, Lev A. Matveev1, Nadezhda A. Pozdeeva2 , Irina N. Grigoryeva2, Maxim G. Ryabkov3, Vladimir Y. Zaitsev1; 1 A. V. Gaponov-Grekhov Institute of Applied Physics, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia;
2 S.N. Fyodorov Eye Microsurgery Federal State Institution, Cheboksary, Russia;
3 Privolzhsky Research Medical University, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Abstract
In patients with dermal burns of the facial skin, the overlying tissues are completely restored in 95% of cases, however, more than 70% of such patients subsequently experience a decrease (or complete loss) of visual acuity due to deformation and decreased transparency of the cornea. The presented results are based on an experimental study conducted on outbred Wistar rats (males, 275-330 g, n = 20). The animals were burned with an open flame in the eye area along with the paraocular zones (the area of each burn was 2 cm2), then OCT scanning and subsequent corneal histology were performed. Based on the histology results, the experimental animals were divided into 2 groups according to the degree of corneal burn. An objective and fairly accurate assessment of early changes in the state of the burned cornea can be provided by a deep analysis of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) data in order to identify OCT signs that would allow one to distinguish the above-mentioned 2 groups differentiated based on the histology data. It was found that the most informative parameter for differentiation was the optical attenuation of the signal. With a burn, the attenuation coefficient increases, so in the group with the greatest degree of damage, the number of points with an increased attenuation value on OCT scans significantly increases. Comparison of the results of histological tissue examination and OCT data showed the promise of OCT studies for determining objective signs of the onset of corneal perforation and descemetocele.
The study was supported by the RSF grant No 22-12-00295П.
Speaker
Peter A. Chizhov
A. V. Gaponov-Grekhov institute of Applied Physics
Russia
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