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Herein, to investigate a new diagnostic method for Meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) induced by eyelid inflammation, optical properties and deoxy-hemoglobin (Hb) concentrations in rodent eyelid tissues, including Meibomian glands(MGs), were measured using spatial frequency domain imaging (SFDI). Complete Freund’s adjuvant solutions were injected into the eyelid margins of Sprague–Dawley rats to induce MGD. After three weeks, the optical properties and Hb of the MG and non-MG regions of the eyelids were measured ex–vivo using an SFDI system. The comparison of Hb showed that the MGD group exhibited significantly higher values than those of the control group in both regions. The optical properties at 730 and 850 nm for the MG regions in the MGD group were significantly different from those in the control group. In addition, the 630 nm absorption coefficients of both regions were significantly higher in the MGD group than in the control group. Thus, the SFDI technique can detect the increased Hb concentration and changes in the optical properties of the eyelids due to inflammatory MGD in a noncontact manner and has the potential to be used as a novel quantitative diagnostic method for the occurrence of MGD.

Weight drop style impact systems can be used as a tool to induce the acute spinal cord injury (SCI) in large animals. We introduce our cost-effective impact system for the SCI modeling without using an expensive high speed camera and a vision system. And the practical output signals obtained in porcine in-vivo experiments using our system have been analyzed to check the effects of surrounding bones, tissues, and bleedings over the impacting target position in the spinal cord. By analyzing the output signals, the abnormal impact results hindered by the surrounding structures could have been separated from the normally impacted ones.