KR102418347B1 - Lighting apparatus for ophthalmic device, opthalmic device including the same and lighting method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

In the lighting apparatus for an ophthalmic appliance that converts an optical image of the eyeball to be displayed as a real-time image according to an embodiment of the present invention, an upper illumination unit irradiating light from an upper side of the eyeball, and the upper illumination unit spaced apart from the lower side of the eye A lower illumination unit irradiating light, a connection support for connecting and supporting the upper illumination unit and the lower illumination unit, and a coupling unit provided on one side of the connection support unit to be detachably coupled to the support arm of the ophthalmic appliance.

Description

A lighting device for an ophthalmic device, an ophthalmic device, and a lighting method thereof

The present invention relates to a lighting device for an ophthalmic appliance, an ophthalmic appliance and a lighting method thereof.

Dry eye syndrome means insufficient tears or excessive evaporation of tears. When dry eye syndrome occurs, the components that make up tears are not in balance, so the surface of the eyeball is damaged, and irritation symptoms such as cold eyes, foreign body sensation, and dryness are felt.

Dry eye syndrome mainly occurs in dry and sunny climates and was treated as a type of aging. In particular, when an electronic device such as a smartphone is used, the frequency of eye blinking when looking at a screen decreases, and there is a case where the eye does not close completely, and if this habit continues, dry eye syndrome may be induced or aggravated.

Dry eye syndrome is caused by various causes. Among them, in the case of tear film related, equipment that can observe the eye more precisely is required for an accurate diagnosis.

Among the existing equipment, in the case of SBM sistemi's tearscope, it is attached to the slit lamp microscope, which is the basic equipment for eye observation, and must be removed when not in use. At this time, the time axis of the tearscope and the slit lamp microscope must be aligned to enable inspection, so it takes time to install the machine. In addition, the tearscope has a small lens, and the space between the patient's eyeball and the tearscope is narrow, making it difficult to perform other additional actions such as lifting the eyelid (eyelid), and the patient is likely to feel uncomfortable.

The present invention relates to a lighting device for an ophthalmic appliance, an ophthalmic appliance, and a lighting method therefor for more convenient and accurate dry eye examination.

In the lighting apparatus for an ophthalmic appliance that converts an optical image of the eyeball to be displayed as a real-time image according to an embodiment of the present invention, an upper illumination unit irradiating light from an upper side of the eyeball, and the upper illumination unit spaced apart from the lower side of the eye A lower illumination unit for irradiating light, a connection support for connecting and supporting the upper illumination unit and the lower illumination unit, and a coupling unit provided on one side of the connection support unit to be detachably coupled to the support arm of the ophthalmic appliance.

In the lighting device for an ophthalmic appliance according to an embodiment of the present invention, at least one of the upper illuminating unit or the lower illuminating unit may include a diffusion plate for diffusing the irradiated light and a dimmer for adjusting the brightness or color temperature of the light. .

In the lighting device for an ophthalmic appliance according to an embodiment of the present invention, the lower lighting unit may further include a reflector for converting the irradiation angle of light.

In the ophthalmic appliance according to an embodiment of the present invention, it includes a lighting device for the ophthalmic appliance according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In the ophthalmic appliance according to an embodiment of the present invention, it may include an optical signal conversion unit for converting the optical image of the eyeball to be displayed as a real-time image.

In the lighting method of an ophthalmic appliance according to an embodiment of the present invention, the step of irradiating light to the lower side of the lacrimal girdle formed between the lower eyelid and the eyeball, and the light to the upper side of the lacrimal girdle formed between the lower eyelid and the eyeball and displaying, as a real-time image, optical images of the upper reflective boundary portion of the lacrimal striae and the lower reflective boundary portion of the lacrimal striae formed by reflection of light irradiated from the upper and lower sides of the lacrimal striae, and the real-time image and displaying a tear band interval between the upper reflective boundary and the lower reflective boundary.

In the lighting method of the ophthalmic device according to an embodiment of the present invention, the optical image of the interference fringe formed in the lipid layer of the tear film by the light irradiated from at least one of the upper side or the lower side is incident and reflected on the eyeball as a real-time image. The step of displaying may be further included.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the cause of dry eye syndrome can be more accurately diagnosed by additionally irradiating light required for eye examination.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to use a slit lamp microscope to which a lighting device is attached without detaching the lighting device according to circumstances, thereby providing convenience in using the device.

1 is a view showing a lighting device for an ophthalmic appliance according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a view showing the structure of the eyeball and tear film.
3 is a view showing the detailed structure of the lacrimal gland.
4 is a table showing causes and symptoms of dry eye syndrome.
FIG. 5 is a photograph showing a real-time image of an eyeball observed using the lighting device for an ophthalmic appliance shown in FIG. 1 .
6 is a photograph showing an actual mounting state of the lighting device for the ophthalmic appliance shown in FIG. 1 .

1 is a view showing a lighting device for an ophthalmic appliance according to an embodiment of the present invention. Hereinafter, details related to the structure of the eyeball, the tear film, and the detailed structure of the lacrimal gland will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 3 .

The lighting device 100 for an ophthalmic appliance according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an upper lighting unit 110 , a lower lighting unit 120 , a connection support unit 130 , and a coupling unit 140 .

The upper lighting unit 110 and the lower lighting unit 120 include a surface light source and a point light source composed of LED diodes. A power line for supplying power to a light source is provided on one side of each lighting unit. The upper illumination unit 110 is arranged to irradiate light from the upper side of the eyeball to the front side of the eyeball, and the lower eyelid (eyelid) and the eyeball, more specifically, the light to the lower side of the lacrimal band 320 formed between the cornea 210 suitable for investigating The lower illuminator 120 is spaced apart from the upper illuminator 110 to irradiate light from the lower side of the eyeball to the front of the eyeball. suitable for investigation.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the lighting apparatus 100 may further include a diffusion plate 150 surrounding the upper lighting unit 110 and the lower lighting unit 120 . The light source generated from the LED light source is directional, and the light is concentrated within a certain angle. Accordingly, scattering of light can be prevented, but variations in illuminance occur. In order to prevent variations in illuminance from occurring, a light emitting area may be increased by attaching a diffusion plate 150 for diffusing light to the upper lighting unit 110 and the lower lighting unit 120 . The diffuser plate is mainly made of polycarbonate (PC) or acrylic (PMMA), which has good mechanical properties, is strong against external impact, and has a light diffusion function. Accordingly, the LED light source, which is a point light source, can also serve as a surface light source by diffusing the light when the diffusion plate is applied. At this time, it is preferable to use a white diffusion plate so that the color of the lipid layer 223 is not affected when observing it.

The upper lighting unit 110 expands the light emitting area by attaching an additional diffuser plate 150 to the lower surface of the lighting unit, and the lower lighting unit 120 expands the light emitting area by additionally attaching the diffusion plate 150 to the upper surface of the lighting unit. The diffusion plate 150 may be further provided on the front side in addition to the lower surface of each lighting unit.

The lower lighting unit 120 of the lighting apparatus 100 for an ophthalmic appliance according to an embodiment of the present invention further includes a reflector that converts the irradiation angle of light to the upper side. If the reflector is used, the area irradiated from the lower lighting unit 120 may be increased. That is, since the area of the eyeball 200 that can be examined can be widened, the examination can be performed efficiently. In addition, in addition to the light irradiated from the slit lamp microscope, the eyeball 200 can be examined more accurately by adjusting the direction of the light irradiated from the lower illumination unit 120 . A reflector may be further provided in the upper lighting unit 120 . Each of the reflectors is preferably disposed inclined toward the eye on the lower surface of the lower illumination unit 120 and the upper surface of the upper illumination unit 110, but if it is a position that can achieve the above-mentioned purpose, the upper illumination unit 110 and the lower illumination unit (120) The arrangement is possible without being limited to any position inside or outside.

At least one of the upper illuminating unit 110 or the lower illuminating unit 120 of the lighting apparatus 100 for an ophthalmic appliance according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a dimmer for adjusting brightness or color temperature of light. This is to examine the thickness of the lipid layer 223 to be described later at various brightnesses and color temperatures. In addition, a switch for turning on/off the power of each lighting unit may be further provided. The dimmer and the switch may be provided at one side of the lighting unit or at one side of the power line.

The connection support unit 130 connects and supports the upper lighting unit 110 and the lower lighting unit 120 .

The coupling part 140 is provided on one side of the connection support part 130 and is detachably coupled to the support arm of an ophthalmic instrument such as a slit lamp microscope. The coupling unit 140 is not only detachable from the support arm, but also coupled so as not to be arbitrarily separated from the support arm, and may be able to rotate relative to the support arm. Therefore, when the lighting device 100 is not used, it can be rotated sideways without being detached.

The coupling part 140 may be inserted into a cutout having one side cut off to facilitate attachment and detachment with the support arm, and may be elastically coupled to the support arm. The coupling part may be further provided at the other end of the connection support part 130 .

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the lack of the aqueous layer 222 among the constituents of the tear film 220 and the lipid layer through the light irradiated to the upper and lower portions of the eye from the upper illumination unit 110 and the lower illumination unit 120 . (223) can be determined whether there is a shortage.

Specifically, it is possible to directly observe the height of the tear strip 320 formed along the eyelid portion together with the tear film 220 of the eyeball 200 , so that the degree of shortage of the aqueous layer 222 among the components of the tear film 220 . can be measured, the light irradiated from the lighting unit is irradiated to the eyeball 200, and the interference fringes generated by reflection or scattering from the lipid layer 223 of the tear film 220 are observed to see the color of the interference fringes and the lipid layer 223. A degree of deficiency of the lipid layer 223 may be measured by measuring the thickness of the .

2 is a diagram illustrating the structure of a tear film.

In FIG. 2, the components of the tear film 220 (tear film) covering the cornea 210, which is the outermost surface of the eyeball 200, are shown. The tear film 220 has an active function, a nutrition supply function, and an antibacterial function to protect the eyes from external bacteria of the surfaces of the cornea 210 and the conjunctiva 230 , and the smooth surface of the eyeball 200 through the tear film 220 . It helps to refract light and affects vision.

The tear film 220 is largely composed of a mucus layer (221, Mucin layer), an aqueous layer (222, Aqueous layer), and a lipid layer (223, Lipid layer). The mucus layer 221 is the lowermost layer of the tear film 220, and is secreted from goblet cells on the surface of the conjunctiva 230, so that the aqueous layer 222 adheres well to the surface of the eyeball. The aqueous layer 222 is the layer that occupies the largest volume of the tear film 220 and consists of water. The lipid layer 223 is made of fat secreted from the meibomian gland 240 of the eyelid, covers the aqueous layer 222 to prevent the aqueous layer 222 from evaporating, and maintains a smooth and uniform optical surface to protect the ocular surface. plays a role

The thickness of the lipid layer 223 may be observed through a color appearing in the interference pattern of the lipid layer 223 using interference.

When the lipid layer 223 is damaged or its thickness is thin, the tear film 220 may become unstable and the evaporation of tears may be accelerated, which may cause dry eye symptoms.

3 is a view showing the detailed structure of the lacrimal gland.

3 (a) is a picture of the eyeball observed from the front, (b) is an enlarged picture by cutting the part indicated by the dotted line, and (c) is a picture of a portion of the eyeball actually.

A space connecting between the cornea 210 and the lower eyelid 310 in (b) of FIG. 3 is referred to as a tear duct (320, Tear meniscus).

The tear strip 320 means tears collected in a strip shape in a triangular-shaped concave reservoir at a place where the tear film generated after blinking and the edges of the upper and lower eyelids meet. The lacrimal gland 320 contains approximately 75% to 90% of the total amount of tears exposed to the ocular surface. Therefore, it is possible to predict the amount of tears exposed to the ocular surface through the height of the lacrimal gland 320 , and it can be determined that the amount of tears is greater as the height of the lacrimal gland 320 is higher. As shown in (b) of Figure 3, the tear can measure the height of the tear duct 320 by measuring the length of a vertical line that draws an arc from the lacrimal duct 320 by the surface tension and connects the end points.

Since the tear strip 320 is transparent, it may be difficult to measure its thickness. Therefore, a fluorescent material is applied to the eye and measured. However, it is difficult to secure the accuracy of the examination because tears are increased due to the irritation that the fluorescent material gives to the eye.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the length between the upper reflective boundary portion and the lower reflective boundary portion reflected from the upper and lower portions of the tear strip 320 by the light irradiated from the upper illumination unit 110 and the lower illumination unit 120 is measured. By measuring the thickness of the tear strip 320 can be measured. The tear strip 320 may be measured in real time by inserting a reticle into a slit lamp microscope, or by indirectly calculating a photographed picture according to a pre-measured magnification to measure its thickness.

Both ends of the arrows shown in (c) of FIG. 3 correspond to the upper reflective boundary and the lower reflective boundary, respectively, and the length of the arrow corresponds to the thickness of the tear strip 320 .

4 is a view showing a table showing symptoms according to the causes of dry eye syndrome. The causes of dry eye syndrome related to the tear film 220 may be largely divided into two types. First, dry eye may be induced depending on the thickness of the lipid layer 223 as shown in FIG. 2 and second, the height of the lacrimal striae 320 as shown in FIG. 3 , and the two factors may affect each other. can

The low height of the tear strip 320 means that the aqueous layer 222, which occupies the largest amount of the tear film 220, is insufficient, and the thickness of the lipid layer 223 is the color that appears in the interference pattern of the lipid layer 223. can be judged through Light is irradiated to the cornea using the lighting device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention, and the light reflected from the interface between the air and the lipid layer 223 and the light reflected from the interface between the lipid layer 223 and the aqueous layer 222. The thickness of the lipid layer 223 is measured by the color of the interference fringe caused by light interference.

The color of the interference fringes is largely divided into white, gray, yellow, brown, and blue, and it is determined that the thickness of the lipid layer 223 increases from white to blue. The range of geological layer thickness according to color is well known from previous studies. For example, the brown lipid layer has a thickness of 105 nm to 135 nm and is considered a normal range.

In the table 400, symptoms are shown when the height of the lacrimal gland 320 is less than normal, normal, or excessive, and when the thickness of the lipid layer 223 is less than, normal, or excessive.

For example, when the height of the lacrimal gland 320 is less than normal, the aqueous layer 222 is insufficient to cause dry eye syndrome due to insufficient aqueous layer. When the height of the lacrimal gland 320 and the thickness of the lipid layer 223 are all less than normal, the aqueous layer 222 causes insufficient evaporative dry eye syndrome.

5 is a photograph showing the state of the eyeball observed using the lighting device for the ophthalmic appliance shown in FIG. 1 .

The thickness of the lipid layer 223 is quantitatively analyzed by analyzing the change in the pattern of the interference fringe reflected back after irradiating light from the upper lighting unit 110 and the lower lighting unit 120 in real time.

(a) is a case in which there is almost no geological layer showing white spots with almost gray color when viewed from the bottom. (b) is a case in which the lipid layer has a normal thickness due to the appearance of a brown interference color, and (c) is a case in which the lipid layer, which is mainly colored in blue, is thick.

6 is a photograph showing an actual mounting state of the lighting device for the ophthalmic appliance shown in FIG. 1 .

The lighting device 100 may be mounted on a slit lamp microscope, which is one of the ophthalmic instruments, as shown in the photograph. As shown, when the coupling part 140 of the lighting device 100 is coupled to the support arm of one side of the slit lamp microscope, it is configured to irradiate the light with the eyeball and is used as an ophthalmic instrument for diagnosing dry eye syndrome as described above. The user can directly examine the thickness of the lipid layer 223 through the lens mounted on the ophthalmic instrument. And for more accurate diagnosis, the ophthalmic apparatus may further include an optical signal conversion unit that converts the optical image of the eyeball to be displayed as a real-time image. The optical signal converter may be implemented as an image sensor such as CCD or CMOS. The real-time image for checking the condition of the eyeball may be displayed by processing the image signal obtained by the optical signal conversion unit through various display devices such as LCD and OLED.

Therefore, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the upper illumination unit 110 irradiates light to the lower side of the tear strip 320 formed between the lower eyelid and the eyeball, and the lower illumination unit 120 is located between the lower eyelid and the eyeball. When light is irradiated to the upper side of the lacrimal girdle 320 formed, the optical signal conversion unit of the ophthalmic instrument is formed by the reflection of light irradiated from the upper and lower sides of the lacrimal girdle 320 and the upper reflection boundary of the lacrimal girdle 320 and The thickness of the tear strip 320 is measured by displaying the optical image of the lower reflection boundary portion of the tear strip 320 as a real-time image, and displaying the tear strip interval between the upper reflection boundary portion and the lower reflection boundary portion from the real-time image.

In addition, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the optical image of the interference fringe formed in the lipid layer of the tear film 220 as light irradiated from at least one of the upper or lower side is incident and reflected to the eyeball is displayed as a real-time image. .

Additionally, the diffuser plate 150 is formed along the shape of the face support so as not to narrow the distance between the face support for supporting the face of the slit lamp microscope and the lens for visually checking the eyeball. can be deformed.

100: lighting device for ophthalmic devices
110: upper lighting unit
120: lower lighting unit
130: connection support
140: coupling part
150: diffuser plate

Claims (7)

In the lighting device for ophthalmic equipment that converts the optical image of the eye to be displayed as a real-time image,
an upper illumination unit irradiating the first light from the upper side of the eyeball;
a lower illumination unit spaced apart from the upper illumination unit and irradiating a second light from the lower side of the eyeball;
a connection support part for connecting and supporting the upper lighting part and the lower lighting part so that the separation distance between the upper lighting part and the lower lighting part is maintained;
It is provided on one side of the connection support and includes a coupling part detachably coupled to the support arm of the ophthalmic instrument,
In the longitudinal direction of the connection support, the length of the upper illumination unit and the length of the lower illumination unit are different from each other. According to claim 1,
At least one of the upper illuminating unit and the lower illuminating unit includes a diffusion plate for diffusing the first or second light, and a dimmer for adjusting the brightness or color temperature of the first or second light. lighting device. According to claim 1,
The lower illuminator further comprises a reflector for converting the irradiation angle of the second light. An ophthalmic appliance comprising the lighting device of any one of claims 1 to 3. 5. The method of claim 4,
The ophthalmic instrument further comprising an optical signal conversion unit for converting the optical image of the eye to be displayed as a real-time image. 5. The method of claim 4,
Further comprising a display for displaying the real-time image,
The first light is irradiated to the lower side of the tear band formed between the lower eyelid and the eyeball,
The second light is irradiated to the upper side of the tear strip,
The display is
The first light and the second light are respectively reflected to the upper and lower sides of the tear striae and display the optical images of the upper and lower reflective boundaries of the tear striae as real-time images,
An ophthalmic instrument for displaying a tear band interval between the upper reflective boundary and the lower reflective boundary from the real-time image. 7. The method of claim 6,
The display is an ophthalmic instrument for displaying an optical image of an interference fringe formed in the lipid layer of the tear film as at least one of the first light or the second light is incident and reflected on the eye in a real-time image.

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