A Study to Assess Brillouin Hydration Mapping for the Evaluation of Ocular Tissues and Diseases
Purpose
The overall goal of this study is to develop Brillouin microscope as a novel tool for measuring biomechanical and hydration properties of human tissues in vivo.
Conditions
- Fuchs Endothelial Corneal Dysfunction
- Open Angle Glaucoma (OAG)
- Dry Eye Disease (DED)
- Keratoconus
- Lasik Eye Surgery
Eligibility
- Eligible Ages
- Between 20 Years and 79 Years
- Eligible Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria
- Healthy volunteers with normal eyes - Visual acuity between +2 to -6 diopters
Exclusion Criteria
- History of refractive or cataract surgery - History of ocular disease - Active non-ophthalmic systemic disease
Study Design
- Phase
- Study Type
- Observational
- Observational Model
- Cohort
- Time Perspective
- Retrospective
Arm Groups
| Arm | Description | Assigned Intervention |
|---|---|---|
| Control Group | Healthy Subjects | |
| Patient Group | Patient Subjects (Fuch's endothelial dystrophy, Corneal guttae, Open-angle glaucoma, Dry eye disease, Keratoconus, post-LASIK) |
Recruiting Locations
Boston, Massachusetts 02114
More Details
- Status
- Recruiting
- Sponsor
- Massachusetts General Hospital
Detailed Description
Our long-term goal is to establish a direct, accurate, and clinically viable method for measuring corneal hydration, enabling earlier detection, more precise diagnosis, and improved management of corneal diseases and postoperative complications. The objective of this study is to develop and validate Brillouin based hydration mapping as a diagnostic tool to quantify water content in the cornea across healthy individuals and patients with diverse ocular conditions. Our central hypothesis is that spatially resolved Brillouin frequency shifts can reveal disease-specific hydration profiles that are not detectable through conventional thickness-based methods. This hypothesis is based on recent evidence from our group demonstrating that Brillouin microscopy is sensitive to hydration. The rationale for this research is that Brillouin-based hydration maps will offer an unprecedented, morphology-independent metric of corneal fluid balance, which could improve clinical decision-making in a range of pathologies.