The mechanical properties of tissues can provide valuable information about tissue integrity and health and can assist in detecting and monitoring the progression of diseases such as keratoconus. Optical coherence elastography (OCE) is a rapidly emerging technique, which can assess localized mechanical contrast in tissues with micrometer spatial resolution. In this paper, we present a noncontact method of OCE to evaluate the changes in the mechanical properties of the cornea after UV-induced collagen crosslinking. A focused air-pulse induced a low-amplitude (micrometer scale) elastic wave, which then propagated radially and was imaged in three dimensions by a phase-stabilized swept-source optical coherence tomography system. The elastic wave velocity was translated to Young's modulus in agar phantoms of various concentrations. Additionally, the speed of the elastic wave significantly changed in porcine cornea before and after UV-induced corneal collagen crosslinking (CXL). Moreover, different layers of the cornea, such as the anterior stroma, posterior stroma, and inner region, could be discerned from the phase velocities of the elastic wave. Therefore, because of noncontact excitation and imaging, this method may be useful for in vivo detection of ocular diseases such as keratoconus and evaluation of therapeutic interventions such as CXL.

中文翻译：

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用于评估交联引起的角膜弹性变化的非接触式弹性波成像光学相干弹性成像

组织的机械特性可以提供有关组织完整性和健康的宝贵信息，并有助于检测和监测圆锥角膜等疾病的进展。光学相干弹性成像 (OCE) 是一种快速兴起的技术，它可以以微米空间分辨率评估组织中的局部机械对比度。在本文中，我们提出了一种非接触式 OCE 方法来评估紫外线诱导的胶原交联后角膜机械性能的变化。一个聚焦的空气脉冲引起一个低振幅（微米级）弹性波，然后径向传播，并通过相位稳定的扫频源光学相干断层扫描系统在三个维度上成像。在不同浓度的琼脂模型中，弹性波速度被转换为杨氏模量。此外，在紫外线诱导的角膜胶原交联（CXL）前后，猪角膜中弹性波的速度发生了显着变化。此外，角膜的不同层，如前基质、后基质和内部区域，可以从弹性波的相速度中辨别出来。因此，由于非接触式激发和成像，该方法可用于体内检测圆锥角膜等眼部疾病和评估治疗干预措施（如 CXL）。