Computer Aided Analysis and Visualisation of Very High-frequency Ultrasound Scans of the Human Cornea

Abstract

The increasing popularity of refractive surgery, in the form of photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) and laser in-situ keratomileusis (LASIK), to modify the human cornea has led to a requirement for detailed information on the 3-dimensional structure of individual cornea layers. Such information may be gathered by very high-frequency (VHF) ultrasound scanning. We describe the algorithms, features and design of a software application for the functional analysis and visualisation of VHF ultrasound data.

Bicubic Bezier patches are used in the reconstruction of the surfaces of the cornea. Ray tracing techniques are applied in the analysis of the thickness of the tissue layers which make up the cornea. Both 2- and 3-dimensional representations of the results of the analysis are generated and the application is packaged in a graphical user interface enhancing ease of use for ophthalmologists not necessarily trained in the use of computational technology.

A full version of this paper can be downloaded in gzipped postscript. If you wish to receive a paper copy, please email me.


Matthew Segall (mds21@phy.cam.ac.uk)
Last modified: Mon Jun 26 16:32:13 2000