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Description
The keratoconus is a pathological condition that can affect the shape of the human cornea, which is the dome-like, hydrated, transparent tissue with structural function that withstands the pressure exerted by the physiological intraocular pressure [1], and causes it to assume a conical shape. Albeit the biological causes for the insurgence of keratoconus are currently unknown, several studies [2] suggested to interpret it as a localized reduction in the mechanical properties of the tissue, which can be regarded as a multi-constituent material, composed of keratocytes, collagen fibers and extracellular matrix.
In our work, we include a description of the behavior of the fluid, thus studying the healthy corneal tissue as a saturated poroelastic medium that undergoes large deformations due to the intraocular pressure exerted by the aqueous humor [3,4]. This serves as a baseline for introducing the degradation of the mechanical properties of the solid phase, which is accompanied by an alteration in the hydraulic properties of the medium. We perform finite element numerical simulations with physiological and pathological parameters, and show that our biphasic model is able to capture qualitatively and quantitatively the alteration of cornea’s shape and the reduction of thickness [5]. In particular, in the keratoconus cases we obtain a reduction of the thickness up to 40% of the healthy ones.
References
[1] Meek K. M. et al. Current Eye Research, Vol. 6, No. 7, Informa UK Limited, p. 841-846 (1987).
[2] Pandolfi, A., De Bellis, M. L., Mechanics of Materials, Vol. 199, Elsevier BV (2024).
[3] Hassanizadeh S. M., Advances in Water Resources, Vol. 9, p. 207-222 (1986).
[4] Giammarini, A., Pandolfi, A., Mechanics of Materials, Vol. 214, Elsevier BV (2026).
[5] Rabinowitz Y. S., Survey of Ophthalmology, Vol. 42, No. 4, Elsevier BV, p. 297-319 (1998).