Acoustical imaging and myopia

A new blindness epidemic has emerged, and it is predicted that by 2050, half the world population will have low vision from myopia (where images are blurred because the eyeball grows too long for its optical power) and 1 Billion people will be blind from pathologies associated with high myopia for which there are no viable treatments. We will discuss how high frequency ultrasonography was used in early studies to prove across species, including humans, that this excessive eye growth was caused by visual input related to our modern environments. Furthermore, aberrant visual exposure causes signals in the retina that induce the outer skin of the eye (sclera) to remodel, becoming excessively thin and weakened. High frequency ultrasound has also been essential to demonstrate that the biomechanics of the sclera are disturbed in complex ways during the development of myopia. For people who are at risk of developing the pathologies of high myopia, new treatments that aim to strengthen the sclera are in development. Due to its depth of penetration, we will introduce how acoustical imaging combined with other imaging modalities may pave the way for guiding more precise scleral treatments for high myopia.