SIMULATING THE EFFECTS OF ELEVATED INTRAOCULAR PRESSURE ON OCULAR STRUCTURES USING A GLOBAL FINITE ELEMENT MODEL OF THE HUMAN EYE

Abstract

Elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) may be the primary risk factor to the development of glaucoma. Finite element (FE) modeling is commonly considered as an effective method to quantitatively analyze pathogenesis of glaucoma. Recent researches focus on establishing partial human eye models. A refined global human eye model was developed using ANSYS software to investigate the correlation between IOP elevation and biomechanical responses. First, the pressure transferring process according to IOP elevation in the whole eye was analyzed to simulate the effects of IOP elevation on glaucoma. Then, the biomechanical responses of the anterior eye segment under various pressure differences between the anterior and posterior chambers (AC and PC) were analyzed to simulate posterior nonadhesion of iris and posterior synechia. This global eye model not only simulated the responses of elevated IOP on ocular structures, but also revealed the process of pressure transferring among each tissue from the anterior eye segment to the optic nerve head (ONH) region. The local mechanical characteristics of the ocular structures obtained from the global model agreed with previous findings. This global model may shed light on the studies of multifactorial glaucoma.