Bioengineering Seminar Series: Alison Flatau

Friday, November 6, 2015
9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.
Pepco Room (1105), Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building
Dr. William Bentley
bentley@umd.edu

Alison Flatau
Professor
Department of Aerospace Engineering
University of Maryland

Non-supine sleeping positions as a potential risk factor for individuals with glaucoma: simulations and experimental data

Results will be presented from an on-going investigation into the response of the human eye to loads that can be experienced when in a non-supine sleeping position. The hypotheses being investigated are that (1) non-supine sleep positions can lead to stress, strain and deformation of the eye and potentially to changes in intraocular pressure (IOP) that are of the same magnitude as loads that are known to exacerbate vision loss in individuals who have glaucoma; and (2) sleep position-induced loads can be mitigated by wearing a protective eye shield while sleeping. Simulations are presented that were used to investigate the quasi-static changes in stress, strain and internal pressure in an axisymmetrical model of an eye, with standard methods for analyzing pressure vessels and hyperelastic structural walls applied to developing a suitable model. The quasi-static pressure increase was used in an iterative code to analyze changes in IOP over time.  The presentation will include data from measured changes in limbal strain obtained from 34 study study subjects (23 with glaucoma and 11 healthy controls) as they moved through a sequence of simulated sleep positions while wearing Sensimed Triggerfish® wireless contact-lens based strain gauges. The preliminary data suggest the hypotheses are correct, but that there is a need to classifying individuals as either having or not having “protective” facial features (e.g. prominent brow, nose zygomatic arch), a result that motivates the next phase of analysis to be undertaken with this project that will be described.  Example data will also be shown from quite recent tests of subjects wearing a protective eye shield developed by BioE capstone design team students this past year that demonstrate the efficacy of a protective eye shield for mitigating sleep position-induced loads. 

 

Audience: Public 

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