In-vivo assessing the age-related stiffness of crystalline lens in rabbits by acoustic radiation force based ultrasound elastography

摘要

The pathological or physiological changes of the crystalline lens directly affect the eye accommodation and transmittance, and then increase the risk of the presbyopia and cataract for people in middle and old age groups. This risk has a remarkable rise with age, seriously influencing the living quality of the elderly, and also posing a huge burden on public health. There is no universally accepted quantitative method to measure the lens' mechanical properties in vivo so far. Acoustic radiation force based ultrasound elastography (ARF-USE) have special advantage for assessing lens'stiffness since it can palpate the tissue remotely and detect the vibration using one ultrasound probe. This study aims to investigate the possibility of assessing the age-related stiffness change of crystalline lens by ARF-USE in a rabbit model in vivo.