JPS6350010B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an improvement in an ocular microscope, and particularly to one capable of observing a frontal image of the endothelial cell layer of the cornea over a wide field of view.

When observing corneal endothelial cells using a conventional ophthalmic microscope, the range that can be simultaneously observed within the field of view of the microscope is extremely narrow because it is obstructed by light reflected from the surface of the epithelial cell layer. That is, in a conventional microscope, as schematically shown in FIG. 1, an illumination light beam 1 of a predetermined width is projected obliquely onto the endothelial cell layer 2 to illuminate the area indicated by D, and the reflected light beam is observed. However, most of the width of the reflected light beam 1a of the endothelial cell layer 2 overlaps with the surface reflected light beam 1b of the epithelial cell layer 3, so that what can actually be observed is a narrow width indicated by W in the figure. It becomes. The same figure shows the state in which the area indicated by D' can be observed within the field of view of a microscope.As shown in Fig. 2, the endothelial cell front image 2a corresponds to the narrow W in Fig. 1.
It forms a band with a width of , with the upper part being the dark part and the lower part being the bright part. Therefore, although it was possible to magnify and observe a very limited area, it was impossible to observe the endothelial cell front image 2a across the entire microscopic field at the same magnification as shown in Figure 3. .

An object of the present invention is to provide an ophthalmoscope which eliminates the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional art and allows corneal endothelial cells to be observed over a wide range within the same field of view.

The present invention will be explained below based on the illustrated embodiments. 4 and 5 show the first embodiment, 1
0 represents the specimen, 11 represents the first lens, 12 represents the second lens, and 13 represents the third lens. The first lens 11 can be placed close to the specimen 10, and the second lens 12 and the third lens 13 are placed behind the first lens 11 when viewed from the specimen 10. A predetermined plane 1 passing through the optical axis of the lens 11 of 1
They are arranged symmetrically on both sides of 4.

Reference numeral 15 denotes a rotating body, which is composed of a short cylindrical peripheral wall 16 and an end wall 17 that closes one end thereof. It is designed to be rotationally driven. 19 is a motor. This rotating body 15
The central axis passes through the plane 14 and the peripheral wall 16
is the specimen 1 obtained by the first and second lenses 11 and 12.
0 conjugate focal plane and the first and third lenses 11,1
3, and are arranged so as to pass through the conjugate focal plane of the specimen 10 and cross the optical axis of the first lens 11. A slit 20 elongated in the direction is provided.

Reference numeral 21 denotes an illumination optical system, which is composed of a light source 22, a condenser lens 23, reflecting mirrors 24, 25, etc., and the light from the light source 22 is directed from the reflecting mirror 25 to the conjugate focal plane on the second lens 12 side as an illuminating ray. It is projected as.

26 is an observation optical system, and reflection mirrors 25, 2
7, a magnifying lens 28, an observation section or a photographing section 29, etc., and is configured to be able to observe the image beam of the specimen 10 that has passed through the slit 20 at the conjugate focal plane on the third lens 13 side.

When an observer directly observes the endothelial cells of the cornea as the specimen 10 using the ophthalmic microscope configured in this manner, the rotating body 15 is moved at a circumferential speed faster than the image storage speed of the observer's eyes. By rotating it in one direction, the front side of the endothelial cells can be observed over a wide range within the same field of view, and even if the magnification of the observation optical system 26 is changed, the endothelial cells can always be observed in the entire microscope field as shown in Figure 3. It can be observed in the same way as shown. In other words, the light beam projected by the illumination optical system 21 passes through the slit 20 and passes through the second lens 12 and the first lens 11.
The light passes through the specimen 10 and illuminates it. The reflected light beam from the specimen 10 is transmitted through the first lens 11,
The illumination beam passes through the third lens 13, passes through a slit 20 adjacent to the slit 20 through which the illumination beam passes, and enters the observation optical system 26 as an image beam of the specimen. If we consider that the rotating body 15 is now at rest, the situation is similar to the case where the width of the illumination light ray 1 and its reflected light rays 1a and 1b is very narrow, which was previously explained with reference to FIG.
In other words, by providing the slit 20, the illumination light beam having a narrow width is in the same state as being reflected by the endothelial cell layer 2 of the cornea, which is the specimen 10. In FIG. 1, if the width of the illumination light beam 1 is narrow, for example, if the width hitting the endothelial cell 2 is even narrower than W, then the reflected light beams corresponding to 1a and 1b shown in the figure do not overlap at all. In this example, the slit 20
Due to the existence of , there is exactly such a non-overlapping state, and moreover, only the reflected rays corresponding to the non-overlapping rays 1a enter the observation optical system 26 through the slit 20. Under such conditions, the rotation of the rotating body 15 means that
Since the slit 20 moves in a fixed direction one after another, the specimen 10 is repeatedly scanned by a narrow illumination beam, and the reflections, which do not include the surface reflected beam, as described above. The light beam enters the observation optical system 26 as an image beam. Since the moving speed of the slit 20 is faster than the image storage speed of the observer's eyes, the observer sees the image of the specimen 10 over the entire field of view of the observation optical system 26, that is, in the same manner as shown in FIG. be able to.

When taking a photograph using such an ocular microscope, the rotational speed of the rotating body 15 does not necessarily have to be as fast as when observing with the eye described above.

6 and 7 show a second embodiment, and parts equivalent to those in the first embodiment are indicated by the same drawing symbols. The difference from the first embodiment is that a disk-shaped rotating body 15a is used instead of the rotating body 15, and a slit 20a elongated in the radial direction is provided near the outer peripheral edge of the disk-shaped rotating body 15a. 1st, 2nd, 3rd in relation to
The groups of lenses 11, 12, and 13 and the positional relationship of the illumination optical system 21 and observation optical system 26 are changed.

In this second embodiment, the longitudinal direction of the slits 20a is along the radial direction of the rotating body 15a, which means that adjacent slits 20a are not completely parallel to each other, but the radius of the rotating body 15a is formed to be large to some extent. It is possible to put it into practical use by Furthermore, since the slit 20a corresponds to the plane 14 in the first embodiment and is bent as shown by the virtual line 14a in the figure, the slit 20a substantially corresponds to the plane 14.
There is no difference that it is parallel to a. In this embodiment, the reflecting mirror 25 can be omitted, in which case the plane 14a will not be bent.

Similarly to the first embodiment, this second embodiment also enables observation or photography of a wide range on the front side of the endothelial cells of the cornea with a wide field of view.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an ocular microscope that makes it possible to simultaneously observe a wide range of endothelial cells using light reflected from the surface of corneal epithelial cells, which was previously impossible.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a diagram showing the relationship between the illumination light beam and the reflected light beam to the cornea to explain the principle of a conventional eye microscope, and Figure 2 is an example of the microscopic field of view when observing endothelial cells with a conventional eye microscope. A diagram showing
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a preferable state of the microscope field of view, FIG. 4 is a front view showing a schematic configuration of the first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. FIG. 6 is a side view showing a schematic configuration of a second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a partially omitted bottom view of the same embodiment. 1...Illuminating light beam, 1a... Endothelial cell reflected light beam,
1b... Epithelial cell reflected light beam, 2... Endothelial cell layer,
3... Epithelial cell layer, 2a... Endothelial cell front view, 1
0... Specimen, 11... First lens, 12... Second lens, 13... Third lens, 14... Plane passing through the optical axis of the first lens, 15, 15a...
Rotating body, 20, 20a...Slit, 21...Illumination optical system, 26...Observation optical system.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 a first lens placed close to the specimen;
second and third lenses that are located behind the first lens when viewed from the specimen and are symmetrically arranged on both sides of a plane passing through the optical axis of the first lens;
A light-shielding surface of rotation is arranged so as to pass through the conjugate focal plane of the specimen by the lens and the conjugate focal plane of the specimen by the first and third lenses, and cross the optical axis. A rotating body in which slits in a direction substantially parallel to the plane in each conjugate focal plane are arranged in the rotational direction at intervals equal to the dimension between the conjugate focal points and is rotationally driven; an illumination optical system that projects an illumination ray onto a conjugate focal plane; and an observation optical system configured to observe or photograph an image ray of the specimen that has passed through the slit in the conjugate focal plane on the third lens side. An ocular microscope consisting of.