# Corneal Biomechanics in Ocular Disease

> **NIH NIH R01** · OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $410,170

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
The purpose of the proposed study is to investigate the separate effects of corneal stiffness and
intraocular pressure (IOP) on corneal deformation characteristics under an applied air pulse.
Paired human donor eyes (n=60 pairs; 120 eyes) will be used to allow both IOP and corneal
stiffness to be varied in a systematic fashion with one eye of the pair treated with a corneal
stiffening procedure, and the fellow eye serving as control, combined with 4 levels of IOP from
10 to 40 mmHg in 10mmHg increments. Stiffness will be modified using incremental changes in
gluteraldehyde concentration to generate two stiffness groups. Deformation characteristics will
be measured in a series of 140 images captured during a ~30ms air pulse with the CorVis ST, a
new device with a high speed speed camera (>4,300 frames/sec) aligned with the horizontal
meridian of the cornea using Scheimpflug geometry. ANOVA will be used to determine
differences in the 3x4 matrix of data, as well as stepwise regression to determine predictors of
IOP and level of stiffness based on deformation parameters including a novel stiffness
parameter. A clinical investigation of deformation response in keratoconus (n=50), glaucoma
(n=50), ocular hypertension (n=50), diabetes (n=50), and normal individuals (n=200) will be
conducted with evaluation of novel stiffness parameter. Expected results include the creation of
a comprehensive database of ex vivo and in vivo corneal deformation response parameters as
a function of IOP, corneal stiffness parameter, and in vivo ocular disease.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10117255
- **Project number:** 5R01EY027399-05
- **Recipient organization:** OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** CYNTHIA J ROBERTS
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $410,170
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-03-01 → 2023-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10117255

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10117255, Corneal Biomechanics in Ocular Disease (5R01EY027399-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10117255. Licensed CC0.

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