A mathematical model for the corneal transparency problem

• Autor(a) principal: Araújo, Adérito
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Barbeiro, Sílvia Alexandra Alves, Bernardes, Rui Manuel Dias Cortesão dos Santos, Morgado, Miguel, Sakić, Sunčica
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10316/100487; https://doi.org/10.1186/s13362-022-00125-y
• topic: Maxwell’s equations; Discontinuous Galerkin method; Low-storage explicit Runge-Kutta method; Corneal transparency; Light scattering

Understanding the physical basis of corneal transparency has been a subject of interest amongst physicists, basic scientists and ophthalmologists. Impairment of corneal clarity is a significant cause of visual morbidity worldwide. Thus, it is essential to understand the mechanisms behind corneal transparency and how the alterations due to corneal pathologies affect vision. We use Maxwell’s equations to model light propagation in ocular tissues and a nodal discontinuous Galerkin method combined with an explicit Runge-Kutta method to simulate light propagation in normal and pathological corneas. Our simulation results illustrate that an increase in the diameter of some fibres causes an increase in backscattering. Thus, these may represent some of the physical changes in the cornea that might result in loss of transparency and visual morbidity.