SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TREATMENT OF LENS RELATED DISORDERS

• US 20110202114A1
• Filed: 07/16/2009
• Published: 08/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Glostrup Hospital (Rigshospitalet)
• Original Assignee: Glostrup Hospital (Rigshospitalet)
• Inventors: Lundeman, Jesper Holm, Kessel, Line
• Application Number:
  US13/057,093
• Publication Number:
  US 20110202114A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 607/88
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2017/00057 Light
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2018/00642 with feedback, i.e. closed loop control
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2009/0087 Lens
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 9/00736 Instruments for removal of intra-ocular material or intra-ocular injection, e.g. cataract instruments A61F9/008 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 9/008 using laser
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 9/00827 Refractive correction, e.g. lenticle
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 9/00838 Correction of presbyopia
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/49 within a body or fluid
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/64 Fluorescence; Phosphorescence
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/6408 with measurement of decay time, time resolved fluorescence
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/65 Raman scattering

Abstract

The present invention provides a means and a system for the prevention, treatment and/or amelioration of a disease and/or disorder which is either related to a lens of an eye and/or which may benefit from the treatment of said lens, the system comprising the exposure of said lens to radiation.

Claims

1. A system for prevention, treatment and/or amelioration of a disease and/or disorder which is either related to a lens of an eye and/or which may benefit from the treatment of said lens, said system comprising:

a) focusing means for focusing a treatment light beam of continuous wave light or pulsed light with a pulse width in the long range, such as in the second, millisecond or microsecond range, of a wavelength between 380 nm and 540 nm into a selected part of the lens and/or its constituents collectively or selectively where treatment is intended to occur, the intensity of the treatment light beam, substantially in front of the cornea of the eye being treated, is between 0.01 mW/mm² and 500 mW/mm², and

b) means for emitting and/or unblocking said treatment light beam, thereby inducing changes in the lens and/or its constituents, and

c1) means for stopping and/or blocking said treatment light beam after a predetermined period of time, and/or

d1) means for measuring one or more types of radiation from said selected part, and

d2) means for processing said one or more type of radiation from said selected part, and

d3) means for adjusting, based on at least part of the output of the means for processing, at least one of the parameters for said treatment light beam;

focus, intensity, wavelength, pulse length, repetition frequency, and pulse train length of said treatment light beam.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the wavelength of the treatment light beam is between 375 and 520 nm.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said treatment light beam is at least partly generated by means of at least one laser or a laser system, said laser emitting continuous wave light of a wavelength between 380 nm and 540 nm.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the diseases and/or disorders are selected from:

presbyopia;

cataract at all stages;

opacities, brunescence or cloudiness of the lens;

refractive errors;

myopia;

hyperopia, astigmatism, nuclear sclerosis and/or a mental disease.

5. The system of claim 1, furthermore comprising means for scanning the treatment light beam relative to the lens.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the retina and/or the fovea of eye under treatment is protected by means of one or more beam blockers located in front of the eye in a substantially conjugate position to the fovea.

7. The system of claim 1, where at least one of said types of radiation arises due to the emission from the treatment light beam, and/or due to a secondary source of radiation.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein said secondary source of radiation is combined with the treatment light beam to provide a combined beam of treatment light and secondary laser light, thereby ensuring that the combined beam is directed to said selected part of the lens.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein said system operates in an initialization phase prior to steps a)-d) where non-manipulative intensity is directed to the selected part of the lens and one or more types of radiation, caused by the interaction between the selected part and the non-manipulative intensity are measured and utilizing this measurement to decide not to photomanipulate the selected part or decide to proceed with photomanipulation.

10. The system of claim 1, where said initialization phase is further utilized to adjust at least one of the following:

focus, intensity, wavelength, polarization, pulse length, repetition frequency, pulse train length, scan velocity, size of scanned volume, scan repetitions, and scan pattern of said treatment light beam.

11. The system of claim 1, where the said measurement involve determining the optical signature of the said selected part comprising at least one of the following:

transient characteristics arising as an effect of the treatment pulse or any characteristic that can be recorded using steady-state or time-resolved spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, photon-correlation spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy and phosphorescence spectroscopy.

12. The system of claim 1, where the said measurement, analysis and adjustment form a feed-back loop.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the said measurement, processing of resulting data, said adjustment(s), and renewed irradiation of the said selected part occurs at least within a time period which is substantially smaller than the spontaneous movements of the eyes (saccades).

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

means for carrying out a verification of efficiency by measurement of radiation due to a non-manipulative intensity directed to the said selected part, and

means for comparing values of said radiation obtained prior to treatment with the data obtained from said verification.

15. The system of claim 1, where the radiation comprises at least one of the following:

fluorescence, scatter, Raman scatter, reflection, transmission, phosphorescence, and bremsstrahlung.

16. The system of claim 1, where the at least one treatment light beam is adjusted to obtain bleaching, color change, deaggregation of lens components, depolymerization of lens proteins or other constituents of the lens, or resolubilization of lens proteins or other constituents of the lens while avoiding or minimizing cavitation, mechanical effects, acoustic effects, and/or thermal effects on molecules, components, or cells that do not form a target for treatment or are outside the selected area.

17. The system of claim 1, where the treatment light beam is adjusted to obtain molecular cleavage of specific larger molecules or macromolecular adducts without damage to healthy lens proteins, cell membranes or other healthy components of the lens, and further avoiding or minimizing cavitation, mechanical effects, acoustic effects, and/or thermal effects on molecules, components, or cells that do not form a target for treatment or are outside said selected area.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the eye being treated is mechanically immobilized, wholly or partly, prior to and/or during the treatment, by mechanical contact with the surface of the eye or by mechanical contact to a contact lens mounted on said eye.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein a contact lens mounted on the eye being treated is at least a part of said focusing means for focusing the treatment light beam.

20. The system of claim 1, including means for administering adjuvant pharmaceuticals to the eye.

21. A method of prevention, treatment and/or amelioration of a disease and/or disorder which is either related to a lens of an eye and/or which may benefit from the treatment of said lens, the method comprising the exposure of said lens to radiation of a wavelength substantially between 320 rim and 800 nm, thereby inducing changes in the lens and/or its constituents, comprising:

a) focusing a treatment light source into a selected part of the lens and/or its constituents collectively or selectively where treatment is intended to occur, and

b) emitting light from said treatment light source, and

c1) measuring one or more types of radiation from the selected part of the lens and utilizing this measurement to decide to stop the treatment light source or to adjust at least one of the parameters;

focus, intensity, wavelength, polarization, pulse length, repetition frequency, and pulse train length of said treatment light source, or

c2) step stopping the treatment light source after a predetermined period of time.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein said treatment light beam is at least partly generated by means of at least one laser, said laser emitting continuous wave light of a wavelength between 380 nm and 540 nm.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the diseases and/or disorders are selected from:

presbyopia;

cataract at all stages;

opacities, brunescence or cloudiness of the lens;

refractive errors;

myopia;

hyperopia, astigmatism, nuclear sclerosis and/or a mental disease.