title: Geometrical custom modeling of human cornea in vivo and its use for the diagnosis of corneal ectasia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To establish a new procedure for 3D geometric reconstruction of the human cornea to obtain a solid model that represents a personalized and in vivo morphology of both the anterior and posterior corneal surfaces. This model is later analyzed to obtain geometric variables enabling the characterization of the corneal geometry and establishing a new clinical diagnostic criterion in order to distinguish between healthy corneas and corneas with keratoconus.
  
  
  METHODS
  The method for the geometric reconstruction of the cornea consists of the following steps: capture and preprocessing of the spatial point clouds provided by the Sirius topographer that represent both anterior and posterior corneal surfaces, reconstruction of the corneal geometric surfaces and generation of the solid model. Later, geometric variables are extracted from the model obtained and statistically analyzed to detect deformations of the cornea.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The variables that achieved the best results in the diagnosis of keratoconus were anterior corneal surface area (ROC area: 0.847, p<0.000, std. error: 0.038, 95% CI: 0.777 to 0.925), posterior corneal surface area (ROC area: 0.807, p<0.000, std. error: 0.042, 95% CI: 0,726 to 0,889), anterior apex deviation (ROC area: 0.735, p<0.000, std. error: 0.053, 95% CI: 0.630 to 0.840) and posterior apex deviation (ROC area: 0.891, p<0.000, std. error: 0.039, 95% CI: 0.8146 to 0.9672).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Geometric modeling enables accurate characterization of the human cornea. Also, from a clinical point of view, the procedure described has established a new approach for the study of eye-related diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Graphical Expression, Technical University of Cartagena, Cartagena, Spain.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cavas-Martínez
authors.affiliation: Department of Graphical Expression, Technical University of Cartagena, Cartagena, Spain.
authors.forename: Daniel G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Fernández-Pacheco
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Activity and Sport, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Ernesto
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: De la Cruz-Sánchez
authors.affiliation: Department of Graphical Expression, Technical University of Cartagena, Cartagena, Spain.
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nieto Martínez
authors.affiliation: Department of Graphical Expression, Technical University of Cartagena, Cartagena, Spain.
authors.forename: Francisco J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Fernández Cañavate
authors.affiliation: Vissum Corporación Oftalmológica, Alicante, Spain.
authors.forename: Alfredo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vega-Estrada
authors.affiliation: Vissum Corporación Oftalmológica, Alicante, Spain.
authors.forename: Ana B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Plaza-Puche
authors.affiliation: Vissum Corporación Oftalmológica, Alicante, Spain.
authors.forename: Jorge L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Alió
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000886:Anthropometry / Q000379:methods; D003315:Cornea / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007640:Keratoconus / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D008953:Models, Anatomic