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US 2013/0293841 A1Published application
Corneal confocal microscope
AssigneeSIFI MedTech Srl
InventorsRenato Frison, Cesare Tanassi, Walter Zanette
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A corneal confocal microscope characterized by a particular illumination system.
Claims12
An ophthalmologic device for examining one or more corneal tissue layers of an eye of a patient comprising:
- a long working distance microscope objective lens;
- an illumination system where a drilled mirror is conjugated to the entrance pupil of the objective lens to provide an annular illumination on the eye of the patient;
- a pupil reimager to conjugate the drilled mirror to the entrance pupil of the objective lens;
- a coaxial fixation target system configured to project a fixation target on a corneal surface of the eye of the patient;
- an autoalignment system that images the fixation target, which is shifted into an image path to transform the optical device from a confocal to a non confocal mode.
2 more elements
A method for imaging one or more corneal tissue layers of an eye of a patient using an ophthalmologic device, the method comprising:
- projecting a fixation target on a cornea of the eye of the patient;
- shifting a non confocal imaging device to capture the projected fixation target coaxially with the imaging path of a confocal microscope;
- adjusting a 3 axis mechanical assembly to match a corneal apex of the eye at a microscope objective lens working distance using a computer analysis of the captured fixation target image;
- removing the non confocal imaging device to use the ophthalmological device in a confocal mode;
- illuminating the eye with an annular illumination provided by a light source projected onto a drilled mirror conjugated to an entrance pupil of the microscope objective lens;
- acquiring one or more images of the one or more corneal tissue layers in the confocal mode using one or more confocal apertures;
- collecting a set of bidimensional confocal images of the cornea by shifting the ophthalmological device to a new position along an optical axis and labeling each image in the set of images with depth information provided by an optical low coherence reflectometer;
- and
- computing and displaying a 3 dimensional representation of the acquired corneal tissue layers.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.