Automatic method of analysis and measurement of additional parameters of corneal deformation in the Corvis tonometer

Abstract

IntroductionThe method for measuring intraocular pressure using the Corvis tonometer provides a sequence of images of corneal deformation. Deformations of the cornea are recorded using the ultra-high-speed Scheimpflug camera. This paper presents a new and reproducible method of analysis of corneal deformation images that allows for automatic measurements of new features, namely new three parameters unavailable in the original software.Material and methodThe images subjected to processing had a resolution of 200 × 576 × 140 pixels. They were acquired from the Corvis tonometer and simulation. In total 14000 2D images were analysed. The image analysis method proposed by the author automatically detects the edge of the cornea and sclera fragments. For this purpose, new methods of image analysis and processing proposed by the author as well as those well-known, such as Canny filter, binarization, median filtering etc., have been used. The presented algorithms were implemented in Matlab (version 7.11.0.584 - R2010b) with Image Processing toolbox (version 7.1 -R2010b) using both known algorithms for image analysis and processing and those proposed by the author.ResultsOwing to the proposed algorithm it is possible to determine three parameters: (1) the degree of the corneal reaction relative to the static position; (2) the corneal length changes; (3) the ratio of amplitude changes to the corneal deformation length. The corneal reaction is smaller by about 30.40% compared to its static position. The change in the corneal length during deformation is very small, approximately 1% of its original length. Parameter (3) enables to determine the applanation points with a correlation of 92% compared to the conventional method for calculating corneal flattening areas. The proposed algorithm provides reproducible results fully automatically within a few seconds/per patient using Core i7 processor.ConclusionsUsing the proposed algorithm, it is possible to measure new, additional parameters of corneal deformation, which are not available in the original software. The presented analysis method provides three new parameters of the corneal reaction. Detailed clinical studies based on this method will be presented in subsequent papers.

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Quantitative Analysis of Corneal Energy Dissipation and Corneal and Orbital Deformation in Response to an Air-Pulse in Healthy Eyes

“…Individual frames within the video are analyzed by the inbuilt CST software to produce various unique parameters. are processed using methods previously described extensively by Koprowski et al 14,18 Image analysis includes detection of the anterior corneal edge using the Canny method, morphologic image processing (close operation), and corneal contour. 18 The resulting data are then used to derive pure corneal ðL TR ðn; iÞÞ and orbital ðL TO ðn; iÞÞ components from the total displacement ðL T ðn; iÞÞ (where n indexes pixels in individual columns nÈ(1, N), and i indexes individual frames in the video i È (1,I), respectively).…”

“…14,18 The method has been validated by comparing the results from their algorithms to data from the CST. 14 The correlated data revealed an error of less than 1% in mean SD.…”

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“…[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] The corneal visualization Scheimpflug technology tonometer (Corvis ST tonometry: CST; Oculus, Wetzlar, Germany) was introduced more recently and allows quantitative and visual assessment of the biomechanical properties of the cornea. 14 The Corvis ST is a noncontact tonometer with an integrated ultra-high-speed Scheimpflug camera, enabling the direct visualization of corneal movement during the application of a rapid air-puff. The instrument's high speed camera is capable of taking two-dimensional images of the cross-section of the cornea during its deformation.…”