JP2561846B2 - Ophthalmic equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial field of application] The present invention is designed to contact or approach the measurement detection end or the tip of an imaging optical system or the like to the cornea of the eye to be inspected for measurement or imaging. The present invention relates to an ophthalmologic apparatus.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, for example, when measuring the axial length of the eye to be examined with an ultrasonic ophthalmoscope, the tip of the ultrasonic probe is lightly attached to the surface of the cornea of the eye to be paralyzed with eye drops. The ultrasonic wave is transmitted into the eyeball in a pressed state, and the reflected signal is detected to measure the length from the corneal surface to the retina.
However, in this case, if the subject carelessly moves the face while the ultrasonic probe is pressed against the cornea of the subject's eye,
There is a risk of damaging the corneal surface.

In particular, when measuring the axial length of the eye, the subject's crystalline lens is opaque and his visual acuity is weak, and since the corneal perception is paralyzed by eye drops, the ultrasound probe is pressed against his own cornea. There is a risk of moving your face or eyes without noticing that you are present. Therefore, in order to reduce such a risk, it is desirable to minimize the time for which the ultrasonic probe is pressed against the cornea of the eye to be examined.

However, the conventional optic axis length meter does not pay particular attention to the above-mentioned danger, and when pulling the ultrasonic probe away from the cornea of the eye to be inspected, the examiner simply places it on the base by manual operation. Only the movement of the entire sliding part is performed.

[Object of the Invention] In order to improve such conventional problems, an object of the present invention is, for example, to minimize the time for keeping the detection end of an ultrasonic probe or the like in contact with or close to the cornea of the eye to be examined. Another object of the present invention is to provide an ophthalmologic apparatus that reduces the risk of damaging the cornea of the eye to be examined.

[Summary of the Invention] The gist of the present invention for achieving the above-mentioned object is that in an ophthalmologic apparatus that obtains examination information about an eye to be examined, the detection end is brought into contact with or close to the cornea of the eye to be examined, and the examination information is obtained from the eye to be examined. A detection unit that obtains the inspection information, a determination unit that determines that the inspection information has been obtained by the detection unit, and a unit that retracts the detection end in a direction away from the cornea of the eye to be inspected based on the determination made by the determination unit. It is an ophthalmologic apparatus characterized by the above.

Embodiments of the Invention The present invention will be described in detail based on the illustrated embodiments.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an ultrasonic eye axial length meter. Movable base 2 mounted on the base 1.
Can be moved back and forth and left and right by operating the operating rod 3, and the movable table 2 is provided with a table 5 that moves up and down by turning a handle 4. A support member 7 of a deep probe unit is slidably attached to the platform 5 via a guide 6 and an ultrasonic probe 9 is attached to the support member 7 via a slide guide member 8. A holder 10 holding the is attached.

The holder 10 can be moved in the front-rear direction by the sliding guide member 8 with an extremely small frictional force, and is pushed forward by the weak force of the spring 11. The support member 7 of the deep contact unit is a large pulley 1 directly connected to the motor 12
It is configured to be moved in the front-rear direction along the guide shaft 6 by a driving means including 3, wire 14, small pulleys 15 and 16.

An electric circuit as illustrated in FIG. 2 is provided inside the base 1. The transmitter / receiver circuit 21 is an ultrasonic probe 9.
The ultrasonic wave drive signal is transmitted to the eye E
The reflected signal of the ultrasonic echo generated by the interface of the medium is received again through the probe 9. The received reflected signal is amplified by the transmission / reception circuit 21 and sent to the signal processing circuit 22 and the waveform discrimination circuit 23. Signal processing circuit 22
Then, the axial length measurement calculation is performed, and the calculation result is displayed as the axial length measurement data on the display 24 provided on the front surface of the base 1, for example.

On the other hand, the signal sent to the waveform discriminating circuit 25 indicates whether or not the ultrasonic signal S having an appropriate waveform is detected corresponding to the cornea E1, the crystalline lens E2, and the retina E3 of the eye E as shown in FIG. When it is determined that the signal waveform has been reliably detected, a signal is transmitted to the motor drive circuit 25, and the motor 12 shown in FIG.
Is designed to drive.

The procedure for actually operating the axial length meter of FIG. 1 will be described below. First, a switch (not shown) is turned on to operate the motor 12 to move the support member 7 of the deep probe unit to the foremost position. After the ultrasonic probe 9 is in the most protruding state, the movable table 2 is once retracted. Then, after the cornea E1 of the eye E is paralyzed by eye drops, the face F of the subject is fixed to the face receiving member 17. Next, the operating rod 3 and the handle 4 are operated to adjust the positions of the movable table 2 and the table 5 so that the center of the probe 9 substantially coincides with the center of the cornea E1 of the eye E to be examined. Further, when the movable table 2 is moved to the eye E to be inspected by the operation rod 3 and the tip of the probe 9 is pressed against the surface of the cornea E1 of the eye E, the deep probe 9 is almost weak due to the spring 11. Touch the cornea E1 with constant pressure.

In this state, the ultrasonic wave transmitted from the tip of the probe 9 is projected into the eyeball of the eye E to be inspected, and the reflected signal is received by the transmitting / receiving circuit 21 shown in FIG. It As described above, this received signal is sent to the waveform discriminating circuit 25 after being amplified, and if it is discriminated that a proper waveform is obtained there, the motor drive circuit 25 immediately drives the motor.
12 is driven, and the probe 9 starts retreating. At the same time, the signal processing circuit 22 calculates the axial length of the eye, and the measurement data is displayed on the display 24.

In this way, the axial length measurement of the eye E to be inspected is completed, but even if the examiner is not particularly conscious, the ultrasonic probe 9 automatically retracts as soon as a proper measurement signal waveform is obtained. Therefore, the time during which the probe 9 is in contact with the cornea E1 of the eye E to be examined becomes extremely short.

Incidentally, the above-mentioned embodiment is a case where it is applied to an ocular length meter, but in addition to this, a non-contact tonometer for measuring the intraocular pressure by bringing a membranous angle gas injection nozzle of the eye under examination or a cornea of the eye under examination. It can also be applied to a corneal endothelium imaging device or the like that performs imaging by bringing the tip of the imaging optical system into contact with the surface of the.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, the ophthalmologic apparatus according to the present invention is an ophthalmologic apparatus that performs measurement, imaging, or the like by bringing a detection end such as a harmonic probe into contact with or in proximity to the cornea of the eye to be examined, Since it is possible to minimize the time that these detection ends are in contact with or close to the cornea of the eye to be inspected, it is possible to reduce the risk of damaging the cornea of the eye to be inspected by the ground edge of the eye, and the safety of the device. Can be increased.

[Brief description of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of an ophthalmologic apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 1 is a side view of an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an axial length meter, FIG. 2 is a block configuration diagram of an electric circuit, and FIG. 3 is a signal. It is explanatory drawing of a waveform. Reference numeral 1 is a base, 2 is a movable base, 3 is an operating rod, 4 is a handle, 5 is a stage, 6 is a guide shaft, 7 is a support member of the probe unit, 8 is a sliding guide member, and 9 is Probe, 10 is a holder, 11 is a spring, 12 is a motor, 21 is a transmitting / receiving circuit, 22
Is a signal processing circuit, 23 is a waveform discrimination circuit, 24 is a display, and 25 is a motor drive circuit.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Takashi Masuda, 53 Imaiue-cho, Nakahara-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Canon Inc., Kosugi Plant (72) Inventor Isao Matsumura 53, Imaiue-cho, Nakahara-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Canon Inc. Kosugi Plant (72) Inventor Mannobu Kobayashi 53 Imaiue-cho, Nakahara-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Canon Co., Ltd. Kosugi Plant (56) References US Patent 3453998 (US, A)

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. An ophthalmologic apparatus that obtains inspection information about an eye to be inspected, a detection unit that obtains the inspection information from the eye to be inspected by bringing a detection end into contact with or close to a cornea of the eye to be inspected, and the inspection information by the detection unit. An ophthalmologic apparatus comprising: a discriminating unit that discriminates the obtained result, and a unit that retracts the detection end in a direction away from the cornea of the eye to be inspected based on the discrimination of the discriminating unit. 2. The ophthalmologic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the detection end is an ultrasonic depth probe of an optic axis length meter. 3. The ophthalmologic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the detection end is a gas injection nozzle of a non-contact tonometer.