Cross-linking, a treatment for keratoconus, strengthens the cornea by increasing the number of bonds between collagen fibers located in the stroma. This bonding between collagen layers should disrupt the normal organization of collagen fibers in the treated portion of the cornea. Variance of the angular orientation of the collagen fibers in a stromal layer can be used as a metric to quantify the level of fiber organization, where a high variance is indicative of a preferred orientation and thus a less random collagen organization. The collagen fibers of both cross-linked and normal eyes were imaged and the orientation of the fibers was measured. The calculated variance of the cross-linked eyes was lower than that of untreated eyes, indicating a more random organization of collagen fibers in cross-linked eyes than in normal eyes.

Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Seattle, WA (USA), May 1-5 (2016)

Peer Reviewed