Determine Corneal Biomechanical Parameters by Finite Element Simulation and Parametric Analysis Based on ORA Measurements

Abstract

Purpose: The Ocular Response Analyzer (ORA) is one of the most commonly used devices to measure corneal biomechanics in vivo. Until now, the relationship between the output parameters and corneal typical biomechanical parameters was not clear. Hence, we defined the output parameters of ORA as ORA output parameters. This study aims to propose a method to determine corneal biomechanical parameters based on ORA measurements by finite element simulation and parametric analysis. Methods: Finite element analysis was used to simulate the mechanics process of ORA measurements with different intraocular pressure (IOP), corneal geometrical parameters and corneal biomechanical parameters. A simplified geometrical optics model was built to simulate the optical process of the measurements to extract ORA output parameters. After that, 70% of the simulated data was used to establish the quantitative relationship between corneal biomechanical parameters and ORA output parameters by parametric analysis and 30% of the simulated data was used to validate the established model. Besides, ten normal subjects were included to evaluate the normal range of corneal biomechanical parameters calculated from ORA. Results: The quantitative relationship between corneal biomechanical parameters and ORA output parameters is established by combining parametric analysis with finite element simulation. The elastic modulus (E) and relaxation limit (G∞) of the ten normal subjects were 0.65 ± 0.07 MPa and 0.26 ± 0.15, respectively. Conclusions: A method was proposed to determine corneal biomechanical parameters based on the results of ORA measurements. The magnitude of the corneal biomechanical parameters calculated according to our method was reasonable.