Ben Franklin Technology Partners

We have used vibrational optical coherence tomography (VOCT) to measure the resonant frequency, elastic modulus, and loss modulus of components of the anterior segment of pig eyes in vitro. Such basic biomechanical properties of the cornea have been shown to be abnormal not only in diseases of the anterior segment but also in posterior segment diseases as well. This information is needed to better understand corneal biomechanics in health and disease and to be able to diagnose the early stages of corneal pathologies. Results of dynamic viscoelastic studies on whole pig eyes and isolated corneas indicate that at low strain rates (30 Hz or less), the viscous loss modulus is as high as 0.6 times the elastic modulus for both whole eyes and corneas. This large viscous loss is similar to that of skin, which has been hypothesized to be dependent upon the physical association of proteoglycans with collagenous fibers. The energy dissipation properties of the cornea provide a mechanism to dissipate energy associated with blunt trauma, thereby preventing delamination and failure. The cornea possesses the ability to store impact energy and transmit excess energy to the posterior segment of the eye through its serial connection to the limbus and sclera. In this manner, the viscoelastic properties of the cornea, in concert with that of the posterior segment of the pig eye, function to prevent mechanical failure of the primary focusing element of the eye. Results of resonant frequency studies suggest that the 100–120 Hz and 150–160 Hz resonant frequency peaks reside in the anterior segment of the cornea since the removal of the anterior segment of the cornea decreases the peak heights at these resonant frequencies. These results suggest that there is more than one collagen fibril network found in the anterior portion of the cornea that provides structural integrity to prevent corneal delamination and that VOCT may be useful clinically to diagnose corneal diseases.

Noninvasive measurement of the viscoelastic properties of both natural and synthetic polymers is important for the analysis of implant design and performance as well as in industrial material development. In this study, we used vibrational optical coherence tomography (VOCT) to compare the elastic and viscoelastic properties of silicone polymers with standard tensile stress–strain measurements. VOCT uses acoustic vibrations and infrared light to measure the resonant frequency of viscoelastic materials. The elastic modulus was calculated from the in-phase deformation of the material at fixed frequencies using an empirical calibration curve. Viscous loss was measured after pulsing the samples based on the ratio of mechanovibrational peak widths to heights. The results showed that the optimal cure time and modulus values obtained using VOCT were like those obtained using conventional tensile testing. VOCT could capture results that were comparable to conventional testing while not destroying the material, suggesting its usefulness for in vivo and in situ measurements as well as for early quality control environments during end-use application and fabrication experiments. We conclude that VOCT is a new technique that is comparable to conventional testing for noninvasively and nondestructively measuring the viscoelastic properties of polymers.