(Press-News.org) The eye is a highly complex organ, composed of intricate structures combining several types of specialized tissues. Under normal conditions, these structures work seamlessly together to provide clear images of the world around us as well as maintain intraocular pressure. However, when ocular diseases set in, the biomechanical properties of eye components change, disrupting their normal functioning. Most importantly, the alternations in biomechanical properties of the eye often lead to significant ocular diseases and vision loss. In order to study, diagnose, and monitor ocular diseases, it is, therefore, necessary to measure the eye’s biomechanical properties, such as stiffness. While several methods have been proposed to this end, most of them are not viable in clinical practice due to their inherent limitations. For instance, magnetic resonance imaging suffers from long scan times, leading to measurement errors caused by the patient’s movements, and high cost.
Reverberant optical coherence elastography (RevOCE) is a more promising approach in this regard, offering high resolution measurements of the elasticity or stiffness of the eye’s structures. This technique utilizes a low-power light source to scan a target volume and capture the pattern of the mechanical waves propagating through the tissues, using it to create 2D or 3D maps indicative of the elasticity of the region. RevOCE requires the presence of reverberant shear wave fields—mechanical waves that flood the target volume and produce intricate interference patterns—that are challenging to generate. Currently available methods for this purpose rely on mechanical shakers that must make direct contact with delicate eye tissues.
Against this backdrop, a research team from the University of Houston in Texas is pioneering a new method for the generation of reverberant shear waves that would make RevOCE noninvasive while maintaining superb resolution. Their findings, which could revolutionize how we study the components of the eye and their biomechanical properties, were recently published in the Journal of Biomedical Optics.
In their study, the researchers proposed a custom-built multifocal acoustic radiation force (ARF) system, which employs an ultrasound generator coupled to an array of acoustic lenses as an excitation source. These lenses “channel” the ultrasound waves to create three distinct, focused ARF beams separated by a few millimeters. They mechanically stimulate the target area within the eye, generating reverberant shear waves that can be picked up by an optical coherence tomography device and processed for RevOCE.
The researchers tested their approach on mouse eye globes ex vivo, confirming that it could successfully produce maps of the shear wave speeds within different eye structures simultaneously, including the cornea, iris, lens, sclera, and retina.
Further, a comparative analysis of the results revealed that different parts of the eye, such as the apical region of the cornea and the pupillary zone of the iris, had significantly different shear wave speeds, indicating distinct stiffnesses. Interestingly, different regions within the same eye component, such as the apex and the periphery of the cornea, exhibited variations in shear wave speed. This implies that seemingly uniform structures in the eye have nonuniform biomechanical properties, which could be key to their proper functioning.
Multifocal ARF-based RevOCE has potential to become a powerful tool for improved diagnosis and treatment of ocular diseases. The proposed strategy offers superior resolution compared to previous RevOCE implementations, providing more accurate measurements. It could enable scientists and doctors to analyze the intra- and intercomponent biomechanical relationships among the eye structures. This, in turn, could enable a more comprehensive understanding of ocular diseases and aging. For instance, this approach could help doctors diagnose and monitor the progression of glaucoma. Moreover, it could be used to assess the effectiveness and side effects of treatments as well as design medical interventions tailored to each patient’s needs.
For more details, read the Gold Open Access article by Mekonnen et al., “Multifocal acoustic radiation force-based reverberant optical coherence elastography for evaluation of ocular globe biomechanical properties,” J. Biomed. Opt. 28(9), 095001 (2023), doi 10.1117/1.JBO.28.9.095001.
END
New imaging technique measures elasticity of multiple eye components simultaneously
Optical coherence tomography-based elastography holds promise for research and diagnosis of ocular diseases
2023-09-12
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Novel emerging nano-assisted anti-cancer strategies based on the STING pathway
2023-09-12
https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.15212/AMM-2023-0023
Announcing a new publication for Acta Materia Medica journal. Activation of simulator of interferon genes (STING), which induces the production of proinflammatory factors and immune effector cell activation, is considered a promising strategy for enhanced anti-cancer intervention. However, several obstacles prevent STING signaling in solid tumors, such as delivered molecules’ rapid degradation, restriction to tumor sites, insufficient intracellular concentrations, and low responsivity. ...
'Team Waponi' advances to finals of $10M XPRIZE Rainforest Competition with 'Limelight', earns $300K semi-finalist prize
2023-09-12
NJIT biology professor Eric Fortune and a team of scientists, known as “Team Waponi”, have reached the final stage of the five-year, $10M XPRIZE Rainforest Competition.
In June, Fortune and 13 other team members traveled to the rainforests of Singapore to compete in the semi-finals of the global competition, which challenged teams to develop and demonstrate new technologies for mapping the vast biodiversity of the world's tropical forests.
The team’s biodiversity sampling device, called “Limelight”, has captured exactly that so far — securing them a spot among six finalists to advance from the field of 13 teams, while earning ...
Charging ahead: New electrolyte goes extra mile for faster EV charging
2023-09-12
Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers are taking fast charging for electric vehicles, or EVs, to new extremes.
A team of battery scientists recently developed a lithium-ion battery material that not only recharges 80% of its capacity in 10 minutes but keeps that ability for 1,500 charging cycles.
When a battery operates or recharges, ions move between electrodes through a medium called the electrolyte. ORNL’s Zhijia Du led a team who developed new formulations of lithium salts with carbonate solvents to form an electrolyte that maintains better ion flow over time and performs well when high current heats up the battery ...
Smartphone technology expected to advance assessment of neurological soft signs in schizophrenia
2023-09-12
September 12, 2023 — Since the 1980s, we have known that neurological soft signs (NSS) can distinguish people with schizophrenia from psychiatrically healthy individuals. NSS are subtle neurological impairments that principally manifest as decreased sensory integration (trouble receiving and responding to information transmitted to the brain through the senses) and difficulties with balance, rapid successive movements, and right–left orientation.
NSS doesn't always cause impairment of daily living, but identifying them could improve the diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia and enhance understanding of the ...
Kessler Foundation receives $725,000 grant for study to accelerate functional recovery in multiple sclerosis
2023-09-12
East Hanover, NJ – September 12, 2023 – Carly Wender, PhD, associate research scientist in the Center for Neuropsychology and Neuroscience Research at Kessler Foundation received a three-year $725,499 grant from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society for her study, “A Novel Combinatory Approach to Maximize Functional Recovery of Learning and Memory in Multiple Sclerosis.”
Cognitive impairment is a common symptom in individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) that can be particularly ...
Older adults with digestive diseases experience higher rates of loneliness, depression
2023-09-12
While life expectancy rates for older Americans are rising, nearly 40% of adults report living with a digestive disease of some kind.
“Many people don’t realize that these conditions are very common in ambulatory care,” said Michigan Medicine gastroenterologist Shirley Ann Cohen-Mekelburg, M.D., who specializes in conditions like inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
“Ultimately, this creates an excess in health care spending in the United States. Not only are these conditions debilitating for the millions of people living with them, ...
Mount Sinai receives NIH grant to develop vaccines that can protect against many different types of coronaviruses
2023-09-12
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has awarded the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai a five-year, $13 million grant to bring together experts from multiple disciplines across five research institutions to create better vaccines against current as well as emerging coronaviruses.
The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has infected 280 million people and caused more than five million deaths worldwide since late 2019. While considerable progress has been made to develop interventions (i.e., monoclonal antibodies, antivirals, vaccines) to treat and prevent COVID-19, ...
Setting the gold standard in diagnosis of lupus nephritis
2023-09-12
In the ever-perilous autoimmune disease world of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE or lupus), up to 60% of adult patients and 80% of children will develop lupus nephritis (LN), and up to half of those will move on to end-stage renal disease. LN occurs when the immune system wrongly attacks the kidneys, preventing them from doing their job, i.e., cleaning blood, balancing body fluids and controlling hormones that impact blood pressure.
Unfortunately, the most precise way to diagnose LN hasn’t been ...
Contributions to white matter injury in Alzheimer’s disease
2023-09-12
“The molecular mechanisms that mediate enhanced dysfunction of white matter parenchymal arterioles when vascular dysfunction and ADNC coincide remain elusive.”
BUFFALO, NY- September 12, 2023 – A new editorial paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 15, Issue 16, entitled, “Microvascular contributions to white matter injury in Alzheimer’s disease.”
In their new editorial, researchers Zsolt Bagi, ...
Accelerating knowledge exchange in biodiversity genomics and bioinformatics
2023-09-12
Since its inception in 2021, the African BioGenome Project (AfricaBP), has made significant gains towards its ambitious goal of sequencing 100,000 endemic African species within the next 10 years. Recently, AfricaBP reported the successful implementation of the Open Institute in the journal Nature Biotechnology (https://rdcu.be/dlXYT), a pioneering biodiversity genomics and bioinformatics knowledge exchange programme.
The AfricaBP Open Institute’s framework will establish openly accessible workshops across Africa, crafted in close collaborations with local African Institutions. ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Sensing sickness
Cost to build multifamily housing in California more than twice as high as in Texas
Program takes aim at drinking, unsafe sex, and sexual assault on college campuses
Inability to pay for healthcare reaches record high in U.S.
Science ‘storytelling’ urgently needed amid climate and biodiversity crisis
KAIST Develops Retinal Therapy to Restore Lost Vision
Adipocyte-hepatocyte signaling mechanism uncovered in endoplasmic reticulum stress response
Mammals were adapting from life in the trees to living on the ground before dinosaur-killing asteroid
Low LDL cholesterol levels linked to reduced risk of dementia
Thickening of the eye’s retina associated with greater risk and severity of postoperative delirium in older patients
Almost one in ten people surveyed report having been harmed by the NHS in the last three years
Enhancing light control with complex frequency excitations
New research finds novel drug target for acute myeloid leukemia, bringing hope for cancer patients
New insight into factors associated with a common disease among dogs and humans
Illuminating single atoms for sustainable propylene production
New study finds Rocky Mountain snow contamination
Study examines lactation in critically ill patients
UVA Engineering Dean Jennifer West earns AIMBE’s 2025 Pierre Galletti Award
Doubling down on metasurfaces
New Cedars-Sinai study shows how specialized diet can improve gut disorders
Making moves and hitting the breaks: Owl journeys surprise researchers in western Montana
PKU Scientists simulate the origin and evolution of the North Atlantic Oscillation
ICRAFT breakthrough: Unlocking A20’s dual role in cancer immunotherapy
How VR technology is changing the game for Alzheimer’s disease
A borrowed bacterial gene allowed some marine diatoms to live on a seaweed diet
Balance between two competing nerve proteins deters symptoms of autism in mice
Use of antifungals in agriculture may increase resistance in an infectious yeast
Awareness grows of cancer risk from alcohol consumption, survey finds
The experts that can outsmart optical illusions
Pregnancy may reduce long COVID risk
[Press-News.org] New imaging technique measures elasticity of multiple eye components simultaneouslyOptical coherence tomography-based elastography holds promise for research and diagnosis of ocular diseases