Selected Grantee Publications

Combining In Vivo Corneal Confocal Microscopy With Deep Learning-Based Analysis Reveals Sensory Nerve Fiber Loss in Acute Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Infection

McCarron et al., Cornea. 2021.

https://doi.org/10.1097/ICO.0000000000002661

Researchers characterized corneal subbasal nerve plexus features of normal and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-infected pigtail and rhesus macaques using in vivo confocal microscopy and a deep learning approach for automated assessments. Corneal nerve fiber length and fractal dimension measurements did not differ between species, but pigtail macaques had significantly higher baseline corneal nerve fiber tortuosity than rhesus macaques. Acute SIV infection induced decreased corneal nerve fiber length and fractal dimension in the pigtail macaque model for HIV. Adapting deep learning analyses to clinical corneal nerve assessments will improve monitoring of small sensory nerve fiber damage in numerous clinical contexts, including HIV. Supported by ORIP (U42OD013117) and NINDS.