Intraocular pressure sensors: analysis of a passive device approach

A very important topic in the medical and biological instrumentation arena is the development of implantable measurement systems. There is a great interest in the design of millimeter-scale sensors, with or without autonomous electronics, to monitor the physiological status of patients in a continuous way and in the least possible invasive way. Intraocular pressure (IOP) seems to be one of the most important factors in the development of glaucoma. Although different devices have been proposed to perform the vivo measurement of the IOP, the resulting sensor is expensive and/or difficult to implant. In this paper, we present a preliminary study for a completely passive sensor approach to monitor IOP, analyzing the required sensibility of the data-collecting instrumentation, and proposing a couple of possible principles of operation for the sensor itself.