1 Department of Ophthalmology, Jinhua People's Hospital, Jinhua 321000, China 2 College of Engineering, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China
Abstract: Objective: To quantitatively analyze the pathogenesis of angle-closure glaucoma caused by an anterior and posterior chamber pressure difference due to pupil block using a mathematical model of aqueous humor flow and iris deformation. Methods: This was a numerical simulation research study. The aqueous humor flows with a normal iris shape (iris-lens gap of 30 μm), and borderline synechia iris configurations (iris-lens gap of 5 μm and 2 μm). The respective iris deformations were studied. Based on the mathematical models of aqueous humor flow and iris deformation, the aqueous humor flows are solved by computational fluid mechanics, and through a one-way fluid-structure coupling technique, the deformations of the iris under the flow field pressures were calculated by finite element analysis. Results: For the normal iris-lens gap (30 μm), the pressure of the anterior and posterior chamber is almost equal; for an iris-lens gap distance of 5 μm and 2 μm, the pressure differences between the posterior and anterior chamber was 31 Pa and 815 Pa, respectively. The relationship between the anterior and posterior chamber pressure difference and the iris-lens gap was obtained by nonlinear curve fit using the allometric function. It was found that when the iris lens gap was less than 5 μm, the anterior and posterior chamber pressure difference increased dramatically. When the iris-lens gap was less than 3 μm, severe iris bombé can occur so that the iris comes in contact with the cornea, causing angle closure glaucoma. Conclusions: Numerical analysis of the interaction between iris and aqueous humor from biomechanics can be helpful to quantitatively reveal the pathogenesis of pupil block in primary angle-closure glaucoma.
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