Our colleague Masahiro Yamanari recently reported a new method for noninvasive assessment of scleral biomechanics. The biomechanics of sclera is supported by its micro-structure that is mainly formed by collagen fibers. Since the collagen fibers is known to have strong form birefringence, we may be able to assess the biomechanics by measuring the birefringence. Yamanari demonstrated significant correlation between the scleral mechanical stiffness and its birefringence which was measured by a polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography.
You can find more details in our article on PLoS ONE.
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Full length article on journal web site (open access)
Citation: M. Yamanari, K. Ishii, S. Fukuda, Y.H. Lim, S. Makita, M. Miura, T. Oshika, and Y. Yasuno, "Optical rheology of porcine sclera by birefringence imaging,"
PLoS ONE 7, e44026 (2012).
Joschi, Yoshiaki Yasuno
