APPARATUS FOR MEASURING OCULAR AXIAL LENGTH

• US 20110157554A1
• Filed: 12/23/2010
• Published: 06/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nidek Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Nidek Company Limited
• Inventors: ENDO, Masakazu, KAWAI, Noriji
• Granted Patent: US 8,672,481 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 351/221
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/1005 for measuring distances inside the eye, e.g. thickness of the cornea A61B3/11 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/1173 for examining the eye lens

Abstract

An object of one aspect of the present invention is to obtain a measurement value in accordance with the condition of a crystalline lens of an examinee'"'"'s eye. An apparatus for measuring ocular axial length includes: a measuring unit which irradiates measurement waves toward a fundus of the examinee'"'"'s eye, and calculates the ocular axial length of the examinee'"'"'s eye based on detection signals obtained from reflected waves including waves reflected from the fundus; and a determining unit which acquires reflection information related to an anterior segment of the examinee'"'"'s eye, extracts reflection signals corresponding to a reflection object between a cornea and a posterior capsule of a crystalline lens based on the acquired reflection information, and determines whether the examinee'"'"'s eye is a phakic eye or an IOL eye based on the extracted reflection signals.

Claims

1. An apparatus for measuring ocular axial length, comprising:

a measuring unit having a first irradiating system which irradiates measurement waves onto a fundus of an examinee'"'"'s eye through a cornea of the examinee'"'"'s eye, a first detector which detects reflected waves including waves reflected from the fundus, and a first calculation part which calculates ocular axial length of the examinee'"'"'s eye based on detection signals output from the first detector,

wherein the first calculation part acquires reflection information related to an anterior segment of the examinee'"'"'s eye, extracts reflection signals corresponding to a reflection object between the cornea and a posterior capsule of a crystalline lens of the examinee'"'"'s eye based on the acquired reflection information, and determines whether the examinee'"'"'s eye is a phakic eye or an IOL eye based on the extracted reflection signals.

2. The apparatus for measuring ocular axial length according to claim 1, wherein the first calculation part calculates an ocular axial length value of the examinee'"'"'s eye in accordance with the determination result.

3. The apparatus for measuring ocular axial length according to claim 2, further comprising:

a monitor which displays the calculated ocular axial length value.

4. The apparatus for measuring ocular axial length according to claim 1, wherein the first calculation part performs the determination using at least one of an interval between the extracted reflection signals and a position of the extracted reflection signals, or performs the determination based on a shape of each reflection surface obtained from the extracted reflection signals.

5. The apparatus for measuring ocular axial length according to claim 1, wherein the first calculation part extracts reflection signals corresponding to an anterior surface of the crystalline lens or an anterior surface of the IOL based on the acquired reflection information, and determines whether the examinee'"'"'s eye is the phakic eye, or the IOL eye, or an aphakic eye based on the extracted reflection signals.

6. The apparatus for measuring ocular axial length according to claim 1, further comprising:

an anterior segment information acquiring unit,

wherein the anterior segment information acquiring unit comprises;

a second irradiating system which irradiates measurement waves onto the anterior segment;

a second detector which detects waves reflected from the anterior segment; and

a second calculation part which acquires the reflection information based on detection signals output from the second detector, and

the first calculation part acquires the reflection information from the second calculation part.

7. The apparatus for measuring ocular axial length according to claim 6, wherein the first irradiating system is used as the second irradiating system, the first detector is used as the second detector, and the first calculating part is used as the second calculating part.

8. The apparatus for measuring ocular axial length according to claim 6, wherein the anterior segment information acquiring unit has an imaging unit which is used as the second irradiating system and the second detector, the imaging unit images a cross-sectional image of the anterior segment, the second calculating part acquires the reflection information based on a signal of the imaged cross-sectional image.

9. The apparatus for measuring ocular axial length according to claim 1, wherein the first calculation part extracts reflection signals corresponding to the cornea based on the acquired reflection information, and determines, based on the extracted reflection signals, whether the examinee'"'"'s eye is a refractive corrected eye that has been treated by a laser beam.

10. The apparatus for measuring ocular axial length according to claim 9, further comprising:

a memory which stores a plurality of intraocular lens dioptic power calculation formulas,

wherein the first calculation part calculates an intraocular lens dioptic power using the calculated ocular axial length value and a calculation formula stored in the memory, and when it is determined that the examinee'"'"'s eye is the refractive corrected eye, the first calculation part selects a calculation formula corresponding to the refractive corrected eye to calculate the intraocular lens dioptic power.