Optic neuropathies such as glaucoma are often late-onset, progressive and incurable diseases. Despite the recent progress in clinical research, there are still numerous open questions regarding the etiology of these disorders and their pathophysiology.
Furthermore, data on ocular posterior tissues are difficult to estimate noninvasively and their clinical interpretation remains challenging due to the interaction among multiple factors that are not easily isolated. The recent use of mathematical models applied to biomedical problems has helped unveiling complex mechanisms of the human physiology.
In this very compelling context, our contribution is devoted to designing a mathematical and computational model coupling tissue perfusion and biomechanics within the human eye.
We have developed a patient-specific Ocular Mathematical Virtual Simulator (OMVS), which is able to disentangle multi-scale and multi-physics factors in a accessible environment by employing advanced and innovative mathematical models and numerical methods (Hybridizable Discontinuous Galerkin method, 3D-0D operator splitting technique).
Moreover, the proposed framework may serve as a complementary method for data analysis and visualization for clinical and experimental research, and a training application for educational purposes.