Abstract
Purpose :
The injection of a drug into the vitreous body for the treatment of retinal diseases is the most common medical intervention worldwide. The success monitoring of this treatment is related to the pathomorphology of the retina. The aim of an optimal therapy is that the drug acts locally around the area of the macula as long as possible. However, the realization in vivo is difficult since the consistency of the individual vitreous body plays an important role such that the drug may not arrive at the desired location. We perform drug simulations in the Virtual Eye to optimize the drug treatment.
Methods :
We develop a mathematical model for the drug distribution in the vitreous body in a human eye. Anisotropic diffusion is used to include the effect of the collagen fibers which have a certain orientation in the vitreous body. We perform numerical simulations to quantify the amount of drug at the target. The simulations are performed with the Finite Element method in our Virtual Eye, a data-based realistic three-dimensional geometry model.
Results :
The position of injection is analyzed by introducing specific output functionals which measure the mean or relative amount of the drug in the vitreous and in the area of action. We will present the optimal injection position as a result of our mathematical considerations.
Conclusions :
Our virtual eye is used for virtual experiments to test different (personalized) therapeutical approaches or for a better understanding of the processes involved.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.