Computational study on the effects of central retinal blood vessels with asymmetric geometries on optic nerve head biomechanics

Optic nerve head (ONH) biomechanics are associated with glaucoma progression and have received considerable attention. Central retinal vessels (CRVs) oriented asymmetrically in the ONH are the single blood supply source to the retina and are believed to act as mechanically stable elements in the ONH in response to intraocular pressure (IOP). However, these mechanical effects are considered negligible in ONH biomechanical studies and received less attention. This study investigated the effects of CRVs on ONH biomechanics taking into consideration three-dimensional asymmetric CRV geometries. A CRV geometry was constructed based on CRV centerlines extracted from optical coherence tomography ONH images in eight healthy subjects and superimposed in the idealized ONH geometry established in previous studies. Mechanical analyses of the ONH in response to the IOP were conducted in the cases with and without CRVs for comparison. Obtained results demonstrated that the CRVs induced anisotropic ONH deformation, particularly in the lamina cribrosa and the associated upper neural tissues (prelamina) with wide ranges of spatial strain distributions. These results indicated that the CRVs result in anisotropic deformation with local strain concentration, rather than function to mechanically support in response to the IOP as in the conventional thinking in ophthalmology.