Fourier transform infrared analysis of the thermal modification of human cornea tissue during conductive keratoplasty

This paper presents a study using in vitro Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis to determine the thermal damage induced to the human cornea by the conductive keratoplasty (CK) procedure. Human cornea tissues were treated with CK at different radiofrequency power (58-64%) and pulse duration (0.6-1.0 s) settings. The cornea tissues were cryo-sectioned and FT-IR analysis was performed to detect the extent of thermal damage by the second-derivative analysis of the infrared (IR) spectral bands corresponding to protein secondary structure. The protein amide I and II spectral bands measured in vitro mainly arose from collagen. The denatured cornea tissue showed a higher β-sheet content than the native tissue. The extent of the thermal damage created by the CK treatment depended on power and duration settings, with the latter having a stronger effect. With clinical settings (60%, 0.6 s), the thermal damage area was confined within a radius of 100 μm. CK treatment duration had a more significant effect on the damage zone than the power setting.