Corneal Damage From Mid-Infrared Laser Radiation
Abstract
The research performed under this contract directly supports the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) mission to assess the health effects and hazards of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation from laser systems. The data obtained will support evaluation of current permissible exposure limits promulgated by TEMED 524 and the ANSI Z-136 laser safety standards. The research addresses three main hypotheses: 1) Damage from 1.55 micro radiation is thermal. 2) Damage from sequences of pulses is cumulative and is correlated by a power law relating the threshold irradiance to the number of pulses in the sequence, and 3) exposures only slightly above the damage threshold for the comeal epithelium will result in damage to the corneal endothelium for these penetrating wavelengths. The hypotheses will be tested by: 1) determining comeal epithelial damage thresholds for single- and multiple-pulse exposures as functions of irradiance, exposure duration, and beam size for wavelengths near 1.55 pm. 2) developing and validating damage models for these wavelengths, and 3) determining thresholds for endothelial damage for single-pulse exposures as functions of irradiance, exposure duration, beam size, and position on the cornea and investigating the healing response for exposures above the epithelial damage threshold.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADA421010
Entities
People
- Russell L. Mccally
Organizations
- Johns Hopkins University