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Corneal Hydration Sensing with Thz Illumination

Technology Benefits

Low-power Non-invasive No direct contact with the corneal tissue Robust to user error Measures hydration directly

Technology Application

Detecting inflammation, immune response, edema or disease in the cornea Building real-time hydration tracking modules for LASIK in order to correct for hydration changes

Detailed Technology Description

Researchers at UCLA have developed an imaging system to detect corneal hydration levels by illuminating the cornea with low power, low energy, THz frequency light and measuring the magnitude of the reflected THz signal. The system is capable of resolving 0.18% changes in the water concentration of the cornea in vivo and results suggest a ~3x increase in dynamic range over ultrasound based pachymetry.

Supplementary Information

Patent Number: US20130162949A1
Application Number: US13597947A
Inventor: Culjat, Martin | Tewari, Priyamvada | Bourges, Jean L. | Hubschman, Jean P. | Singh, Rahul S. | Taylor, Zachary | Grundfest, Warren S.
Priority Date: 29 Aug 2011
Priority Number: US20130162949A1
Application Date: 29 Aug 2012
Publication Date: 27 Jun 2013
IPC Current: A61B000300
US Class: 351221 | 351246
Assignee Applicant: The Regents of the University of California
Title: CORNEAL HYDRATION SENSING SYSTEM
Usefulness: CORNEAL HYDRATION SENSING SYSTEM
Summary: Corneal hydration sensing system for measuring injury and disease extent such as traumatic injury, stromal edema and dystrophy. Can also be used in Fuch's dystrophy, ocular trauma, corneal graft rejection keratoconus and ablation control.
Novelty: Corneal hydration sensing system for measuring disease e.g. dystrophy, has signal processing system that processes detection signal to provide measure of amount of hydration sensed in cornea of subject

Industry

Biomedical

Sub Group

Medical Device

Application No.

8690331

Others

State Of Development

DEVELOPMENT-TO-DATE: Researchers have created a working prototype and have successfully completed a preliminary in-vivo animal trials.

Background

Proper corneal hydration levels are critical to maintaining optical vision. Currently, corneal hydration is measured using ultrasound optical pachymetry, which involves measuring the central corneal thickness and extrapolating the average water content from these measurements. However, mapping from thickness to hydration is very inaccurate and is limited by inherent constraints. Another method uses confocal Raman spectroscopy to remotely measure corneal hydration. However, the excitation illumination influence necessary to achieve accurate measurements exceeds the ANSI regulations for use in humans by orders of magnitude.

Tech ID/UC Case

22577/2012-100-0

Related Cases

2012-100-0

Country/Region

USA

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