JP2002017680A - Eyeball protection cap and eyeball microscope provided with the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an eyeball microscope by which excellent observation and photographing can be performed without allowing a microscope part to contact with a cornea. SOLUTION: In an eyeball microscope for observing or photographing eyeballs, there are provided the microscope part having an object lens and a confocal optical system, a cap which is arranged between the object lens and the eyes of a patient for protection, and has the edge of an opening hermetically fixed around the eyes of the patient and whose bottom at the object lens side comprises a light-transmissive member. The cap is almost filled with a light-transmissive liquid to use the microscope.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ocular microscope apparatus and a method for suppressing reflected light from the cornea.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a cornea microscope apparatus for observing or photographing a cell layer of a cornea has been known in an ocular microscope. This corneal microscope device includes a contact-type device for observing the cornea by contacting the tip of the device (the objective lens portion of the microscope) with the patient's cornea, and a non-contact device for observing the cornea without contacting the tip. Corneal microscopes are known.

[0003]

The contact type corneal microscope apparatus is designed to contact the cornea with an objective lens of the microscope.
It is hardly affected by the reflected light on the cornea and is suitable for observing the cell layer of each cell layer of the cornea (epithelium, Bowman's membrane, endothelium, etc.). Doing so is very burdensome for the patient. In addition, contact-type devices must be aware of infectious diseases and the like.

On the other hand, a non-contact type corneal microscope apparatus uses an objective lens without contacting the cornea, so that the burden on the patient is small and there is little concern about infections and the like. However,
Since this device is easily affected by the reflected light on the cornea, it is difficult to satisfactorily observe a cell layer near the surface of the cornea such as the corneal epithelium, and the observation area becomes narrow.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art,
It is an object of the present invention to provide an ocular microscope apparatus capable of performing good observation and photographing without bringing a microscope section into contact with a cornea.

[0006]

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is characterized by having the following configuration.

(1) In an eyeball microscope apparatus for observing or photographing an eyeball, a microscope section having an objective lens and a confocal optical system, and a cap for protecting the eyeball disposed between the objective lens and a patient's eyeball And a cap having an edge portion of an opening that is brought into close contact with the periphery of the patient's eye and a bottom portion located on the objective lens side made of a light-transmitting member, wherein the liquid having light-transmitting properties is provided in the cap. Is characterized by being substantially filled.

(2) In the ocular microscope apparatus according to (1), the bottom surface of the cap is formed of a material having a refractive index equal to or close to the refractive index of the cornea.

(3) The eyeball microscope apparatus according to (1), wherein the bottom surface of the cap is provided with an antireflection film.

(4) In the eye microscope apparatus of (1), the refractive index of the liquid substantially filled in the cap is the same as or approximate to the refractive index of the cornea.

(5) A cap for protecting an eyeball having an edge of an opening which is brought into close contact with the periphery of a patient's eye, wherein a bottom surface located on the opposite side of the opening has a refractive index equal to or close to the refractive index of the cornea. A cap formed of a material having the following is placed in front of the patient's eye, and the cap is substantially filled with a liquid having the same or similar refractive index as the cornea.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic external view of a corneal microscope device which is a kind of an eyeball microscope device.

Reference numeral 1 denotes a corneal microscope apparatus main body. A top plate 9 is provided at the middle stage of the apparatus main body 1, and the gantry 4 is installed on the top plate 9. Reference numeral 2 denotes a microscope unit having a built-in confocal optical system, which will be described later, and an objective lens unit 3 for irradiating the tip of the microscope unit 2 with observation light (illumination light) to observe the cornea.
Is provided.

A drive unit (not shown) such as a motor is installed in the gantry unit 4, and the microscope unit 2 is moved in the front-rear and left-right directions by using a joystick 6 placed on a top plate 9. It is possible. 6a is a switch for moving the microscope unit 2 in the vertical direction. Reference numeral 6b denotes a switch for capturing and storing an image of the corneal tissue layer to be observed.

Reference numeral 5 denotes a display for projecting a corneal tissue layer photographed by a high-sensitivity camera 34, which will be described later, via the objective lens unit 3, and for observing each layer of the cornea. 7
Is a face holding unit provided with a forehead rest and a chin rest for fixing and holding a patient's face. The chin rest can be moved up and down, so that the height of the patient's eye can be adjusted.

Reference numeral 8 denotes a computer unit for storing and analyzing data of a corneal tissue layer to be photographed, and 10 denotes a keyboard for giving instructions to the computer unit 8. Various analysis results of the corneal tissue layer are displayed on the display 5. Reference numeral 11 denotes an eye protection cap that covers the patient's eyes. When observing the cornea, use this eye protection cap 11
The cornea is observed by putting the liquid such as water inside the eye and putting it on the eye. The details of the corneal observation using the eye protection cap 11 will be described later.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an optical system installed inside the microscope section 2. As shown in FIG.

The illumination optical system and the observation optical system of the corneal microscope apparatus used in the present embodiment are constituted by confocal optical systems using slit light.

Reference numeral 20 denotes a light source for emitting illumination light, and a halogen lamp is used. The lamp light source may be a more powerful one such as a mercury lamp. Reference numerals 21 and 22 denote condenser lenses, 23 denotes a filter that absorbs infrared light and ultraviolet light, and 24 denotes a collimator lens for uniformly illuminating the entire slit. Reference numeral 25 denotes a slit plate, and slit aperture stops 25a and 25b having the same width are provided at two positions on the left and right. The slit aperture stop 25a is located on the illumination optical path, and the slit aperture stop 25b is located on the optical path of the observation optical system. The slit plate 25 reciprocates (scans) by a predetermined width in the direction of arrow A by a driving means (not shown).
26 is a projection lens, 27 and 28 are reflection mirrors, 29 is an objective lens, and the above optical members constitute an illumination optical system.

Here, the position of the slit aperture stop 25a is determined by the focal position E of the projection lens 26 and the objective lens 29.
_The position is conjugate to ₀ . The objective lens 29 uses a long-acting lens having a long focal length, and the focal position of the slit image is positioned on the cornea when the eye protection cap 11 is put on the patient's eye E. .

The observation optical system includes an objective lens 29, reflection mirrors 30 and 31, and a condenser lens 3 which are shared with the illumination optical system.
2. A slit aperture stop 25b of the slit plate 25, an imaging lens 33, and a high-speed camera 34 are provided. Condensing lens 3
2 is set such that the focal position E ₀ and the slit aperture stop 25b are conjugate to each other.

The high-speed camera 34 is equipped with a high-sensitivity optical amplification image device, which converts the optical image into an electronic image by amplifying the sensitivity, converts the electronic image into a visible light image again on the fluorescent screen, It is possible to take out an optical image larger than that obtained.

The illumination light flux emitted from the light source 20 of the illumination optical system is supplied to a condenser lens 21 placed on the optical axis L1,
After being condensed by the condenser lens 22, the light passes through the filter 23, thereby cutting off infrared light and ultraviolet light. The light beam having passed through the filter 23 uniformly illuminates the entire slit aperture stop 25a by the collimator lens 24. The light beam that has passed through the slit aperture stop 25a passes through a projection lens 26, and is reflected by a reflection mirror 27 and a reflection mirror 28.
Reflected at.

The illumination light beam reflected by the reflection mirror 28 passes through the objective lens 29, passes through the eye protection cap 11 covering the patient's eye E, and on the cornea of the patient's eye E (on the corneal cell layer).
Image. The reflected light image of the slit formed on the cornea passes through the objective lens 29 again and is reflected by the reflection mirrors 30 and 3.
1 reflected. The reflected light images reflected by the reflection mirrors 30 and 31 are collected by a condenser lens 3 placed on the optical axis L2.
2. After passing through the slit aperture stop 25b and the imaging lens 33,
The image is captured by the high-speed camera 34. At this time, since the slit plate 25 is reciprocated at a predetermined width in the direction A at a high speed, the range actually displayed on the display 5 is the range in which the slit aperture stop is reciprocating.

Next, the structure of the eye protection cap 11 is shown in FIG.
This will be described based on FIG. As shown in the drawing, the eye protection cap 11 has a cup shape having an opening on the upper surface. At the time of observation and photographing of each layer of the corneal tissue, the eye protection cap 11 is placed over the patient's eye, so that the material for forming the eye protection cap 11 is preferably a material having high translucency. In this case, the entire eye protection cap 11 does not need to be transparent, and only the flat bottom portion 11b (the surface facing the objective lens portion 3) may be formed of a light-transmitting material. . Further, it is preferable to apply an antireflection film on both surfaces of the bottom surface portion 11b.

Further, while observing and photographing the patient's eye E, a liquid 12 having a light transmitting property such as water is contained in the eye protection cap 11.
In order to prevent the liquid 12 from leaking, the edge 11a of the opening of the eye protection cap 11 is shaped to be in close contact with the shape around the eye. When putting the eye protection cap 11 on the patient's eye, the lower side of the cup height is located on the nose side, and is commonly used for the left and right eyes.

The liquid 12 is used to suppress reflected light from the corneal surface, which hinders observation and photographing of the corneal tissue layer. Therefore, the liquid 1 put in the eye protection cap 11
The refractive index of 2 is preferably the same as or close to the refractive index of the cornea (about 1.376). For example, it is preferable to use water or physiological saline (about 1.333 to 1.336).
Further, in addition to the above-mentioned water and physiological saline, any liquid having a refractive index close to the refractive index of the cornea without adversely affecting the human body is suitable while suppressing reflected light on the corneal surface. Can be used for

Also, the material forming the eye protection cap 11 may be any material having a refractive index equal to or close to the refractive index of the liquid 12.
And reflected light generated between them can be suppressed. In this embodiment, since the liquid used is water having a refractive index of about 1.333, a fluororesin having a refractive index close to that of water and a high transmittance is used.

The operation of the eyeball microscope having the above configuration will be described.

The surgeon holds the patient's face on the face holder 7 and moves the chin rest up and down to adjust the height of the patient's eye E in advance. Next, once the face is separated from the face holding unit 7, an appropriate amount of water is put into the eye protection cap 11, and then put on the eye to be examined while paying attention not to spill water. When putting the eye protection cap 11 on the patient's eye E, the patient himself may hold the eye protection cap 11 in his / her hand, put it on the patient's eye E, and hold the hand with the eye protection cap 11 as it is. .

It is sufficient that the amount of water to be put into the eye protection cap 11 is such that the whole of the patient's eye E is immersed, but it is not limited to this, and at least the portion of the cornea to be examined is required. It just needs to contain enough water to soak the water.

When the eye protection cap 11 is put on the patient's eye E, the face is again placed on the face holding unit 7 to fix and hold the patient's face. Next, the surgeon uses the joystick 6 to visually adjust the position of the final emission end 3 so as to be substantially coaxial with the patient's eye E. When the patient's eye E and the final emission unit 3 become substantially coaxial, the operator uses the joystick 6 to further move back and forth, left and right while viewing the display 5 so that the corneal endothelium image can be displayed at the sharpest position. The microscope unit 2 is finely moved in the vertical direction to adjust the aim.

In the conventional contact-type corneal microscope apparatus, since observation and photographing are performed while the cornea is in contact with the distal end of the apparatus, there has been concern about infection. However, in this embodiment, since each tissue layer of the cornea is observed via the eye protection cap 11, there is no need to worry about an infection. In addition, since the instrument does not come into contact with the eyeball, observation can be performed while suppressing psychological anxiety to the patient.

When the microscope unit 2 is aimed, the operator uses the switch 6b on the joystick 6. When the switch 6b is pressed, the microscope unit 2 is driven in the front-rear direction by a predetermined amount (approximately the thickness of the cornea) to store the image data of each tissue layer of the cornea in the computer 8. The cornea observation is performed by projecting the stored video data on the display 5 again. The illumination light that has passed through the objective lens 29 by the illumination optical system is reflected by the bottom surface 11b of the eye protection cap 11, but this is far away from the focal length of the objective lens 29. It does not enter 34. Further, in the present embodiment, a substance close to the refractive index of the cornea is interposed between the cornea and the microscope unit 2 so as to suppress reflected light that hinders observation that occurs on the cornea. It is also possible to observe the tissue layers.

As described above, in the present embodiment,
The eye protection cap 11 containing a liquid having a refractive index close to the refractive index of the cornea is attached to the patient's eye and observation is performed to suppress the reflected light on the cornea. If it is desired to suppress even the reflected light generated at the bottom surface portion 11b, a gel 40 may be added between the eye protection cap 11 and the tip end portion 3 as shown in FIG. The refractive index of the gel used at this time is preferably close to the refractive index of the eye protection cap 11.

In this embodiment, the cornea microscope for observing the cornea is used. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and it is preferable to use an ocular microscope for which it is desirable to reduce unnecessary reflected light on the cornea. Can be applied.

[0037]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the eye microscope apparatus does not come into contact with the eyeball, it is possible to eliminate the concern of infection and the anxiety of the patient. In addition, since unnecessary reflected light on the cornea is small, each tissue layer of the cornea can be observed without contact.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic external view showing a corneal microscope device according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing details of an optical system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing details of an eye protection cap.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a modification of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Apparatus main body 2 Microscope part 3 Objective lens part 5 Display 6 Joystick 11 Eye protection cap 20 Light source 21 Condenser lens 22 Condenser lens 23 Filter 24 Collimator lens 25 Slit board 26 Projection lens 29 Objective lens 32 Condensing lens 33 Imaging lens 34 High speed camera

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An ocular microscope apparatus for observing or photographing an eyeball, comprising: a microscope unit having an objective lens and a confocal optical system; and a cap for protecting an eyeball disposed between the objective lens and a patient's eyeball. And a cap having an edge portion of an opening to be in close contact with the periphery of the patient's eye and a bottom portion located on the side of the objective lens being made of a translucent member,
An ocular microscope apparatus, wherein the cap is substantially filled with a translucent liquid for use. 2. The eye microscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the bottom surface of the cap is formed of a material having a refractive index equal to or close to the refractive index of the cornea. 3. An eyeball microscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an antireflection film is formed on a bottom surface of said cap. 4. The eye microscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the refractive index of the liquid substantially filled in the cap is equal to or close to the refractive index of the cornea. 5. A cap for protecting an eyeball having an edge portion of an opening which is brought into close contact with the periphery of a patient's eye, wherein a bottom portion located on the opposite side of the opening has a refractive index equal to or close to the refractive index of the cornea. An eyeball protection cap, wherein a cap formed of a material having the same is disposed in front of a patient's eye, and the cap is substantially filled with a liquid having the same or similar refractive index as a cornea.