Spatially resolved reconstruction of corneal in- and out-of-plane elastic moduli with acoustic micro-tapping optical coherence elastography

Corneal collagen crosslinking (CXL) is a surgical procedure to prevent the progression of corneal ectasia. While ectasia is usually local, the FDA-approved CXL procedure treats the whole cornea and is applied uniformly to all patients. Localized treatment has been considered but has not been supported by quantitative localized measurement of elastic properties. In this study, we use an ex vivo corneal flap, treated on one half with CXL, and demonstrate the feasibility of laterally resolved mapping of both corneal elastic moduli using acoustic micro-tapping optical coherence elastography (OCE).