Optics: eye examining – vision testing and correcting – Eye examining or testing instrument – Objective type
Reexamination Certificate
2001-01-24
2003-04-15
Manuel, George (Department: 3737)
Optics: eye examining, vision testing and correcting
Eye examining or testing instrument
Objective type
Reexamination Certificate
active
06547394
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Ophthalmologists, optometrists and other medical doctors and health care professionals frequently are required to examine the cornea of the human eye for scrapes, abrasions, dirt or foreign bodies. The current technology utilizes a battery operated hand-held penlight illuminator in conjunction with a solution of Sodium Fluorescein. An example of an existing prior art device is the Solan Blu-Slit® manufactured by Xomed Surgical Products, Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla. The penlight illuminator typically uses conventional batteries as a power source and an incandescent or halogen light bulb. A cobalt blue filter attached over the lamp filters the white light emitted by the bulb to produce a blue beam. This blue beam is used to illuminate the patient's eye after application of the Sodium Fluorescein dye.
The fluorescein dye, which is typically impregnated in sterile paper, is administered by the physician in the following manner. The patient's upper eyelid is retracted and the sodium fluorescein impregnated paper applicator is made to contact the bulbar conjunctiva of the eye at the temporal side. The applicator is removed and the eyelid is opened and closed several times to allow diffusion of the dye over the entire conjunctival area and cornea.
The fluorescein dye tends to accumulate in epithelial defects of the cornea and illumination of the eye will cause the defect to fluoresce vividly. By using blue filtered light to illuminate the eye of the patient, which has been dyed with fluorescein, this fluorescence is most observable. The amount of fluorescence observable is proportional to the accumulation of the fluorescein or the magnitude of the defect. However, the magnitude of the fluorescence is also proportional to both the intensity and spectral purity of the light illuminating the patient's eye. In other words, a brighter and more spectrally pure beam will show more detail and thus is more desirable to the physician.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The subject of this invention is a device which is used to illuminate a patient's eye that has been administered with a fluorescent dye for the purpose of examining the eye for epithelial defects. The invention in its simplest form utilizes four components: a battery, an electrical resistor, an electrical switch and a blue light emitting diode.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3945717 (1976-03-01), Ryder et al.
patent: 4964023 (1990-10-01), Nishizawa et al.
patent: 6340868 (2002-01-01), Lys et al.
patent: 2001/0007494 (2001-07-01), Takada
patent: 2000-1314 (2001-07-01), None
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