Compact foldable apparatus for ophthalmology

Abstract

There is a need for robust and portable system, and apparatus for ophthalmology. We propose use of folding apparatus for ocular purposes for the first time. Our system will have a chin-rest (or face-rest or forehead rest) that can be folded so that the ocular device could be transported in a brief-case type casing.

Claims

1. An ophthalmic system comprising of at least one means to hold the face of a patient called a face-holder; an optical coherence domain reflectometry based component; at least one light source; at least one cable; a base; an eye-piece; the eye-piece further comprising of optics and mechanics; a means to fold the face-holder; wherein the face-holder can be folded at least once; and the face-holder further comprises of a forehead rest, which is a resting pad to rest the forehead; and the face-holder further comprises of a chin-rest, which is a resting pad to rest the chin; and the system fits in at least one of a box and a briefcase; wherein the patient is at least one of an animal and a human.

2. The system of claim 1; wherein the system further comprises of optical coherence tomography.

3. The system of claim 1; wherein the system further comprises of fundus photography.

4. The system of claim 1; wherein the light source is a tunable wavelength light source.

5. The system of claim 1; further comprising of a depth-scanning reference mirror.

6. The system of claim 1; wherein at least one part of the system is built using at least one of machining, structural reaction injection molding, reaction injection molding, injection molding, thermoplastics and thermosetting plastics.

7. The system of claim 1; further comprising of at least one of a projector and a screen to display.

8. An ophthalmic system comprising of at least one of diagnostic and therapeutic components; at least one means to hold the face of a patient called a face-holder; the face-holder comprising of a spectacles-type assembly; the spectacles-type assembly is further attached to eyes; at least one light source; at least one cable; a base; an eye-piece; the eye-piece further comprises of optics; and the system fits in at least one of a box and a briefcase; wherein the patient is at least one of an animal and a human.

9. The system of claim 8; wherein the eye-piece in the spectacles-type assembly may be moved from one eye to the other.

10. The system of claim 8; further comprising of a means to eject the face-holder from the base of the system.

11. The system of claim 8; further comprising of at least one of ophthalmic imaging, perimetry, corneal topography, auto-refractors, fundus photography, scanning retinal imaging, optical coherence domain reflectometry, optical coherence tomography, and a therapeutic component.

12. The system of claim 8; further comprising of at least one part made using at least one of High-density polyethylene, Polyvinyl chloride, Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, Polyether ether ketone, aluminum alloy, various varieties of aluminum alloy, Nickel-chromium alloys, stainless steel, stainless steel related alloys, heat and chemical resistant polymers, and Acetal homopolymer.

13. The system of claim 8; wherein the brief-case further comprises of at least one of wheels and a handle to assist transportation.

14. The system of claim 8; further comprises of at least one of batteries and rechargeable batteries.

15. An ophthalmic apparatus comprising of at least one means to hold the face of a patient called a face-holder; at least one therapeutic component to perform treatment on an eye; an eye-piece; the eye-piece further comprises of optics and mechanics; at least one cable; a foldable face-holder; wherein the face-holder can be folded at least once; a screen to display measurement results; a base; and the base further comprises of at least one of electronics and optical components; wherein the patient is at least one of an animal and a human.

16. The apparatus of claim 15; wherein the display screen is a touch-sensitive screen.

17. The apparatus of claim 15; wherein the apparatus operates on at least one of batteries and rechargeable batteries.

18. The apparatus of claim 15; further comprising of a vehicle charger to charge the batteries by sourcing power from a vehicle.

19. The apparatus of claim 15; further comprising of optical coherence domain reflectometry.

20. The apparatus of claim 15; further comprising of a diagnostic component.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 depicts a simplified version of the “foldable face-holder apparatus” 100.

(2) FIG. 2 depicts the folded version of the “foldable face-holder apparatus” 100.

(3) FIG. 3 illustrates telescopic legs.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(4) The instant disclosure describes a technological advancement of foldable ophthalmic apparatus and system. Such a system would be compact, portable and would save storage space.

(5) FIG. 1 depicts a simple version of the “foldable face-holder apparatus” 100. The apparatus comprises of an ophthalmic system comprising of at least one means to hold the face of a patient (i.e., face-holder 102), a diagnostic component to perform diagnosis or evaluation or a therapeutic component to perform treatment of the eye and the means to fold the face-holder (e.g., hinge 114). Thus the apparatus and system will comprise of at least one of diagnostic, evaluation and therapeutic components.

(6) In some embodiments, the face-holder can be folded at least once and possibly multiple times. In some embodiments, the face-holder comprises of a resting pad to rest forehead (i.e., forehead rest 110). In another embodiment, the face-holder comprises of a resting pad to rest chin (i.e., chin-rest 104).

(7) In another embodiment of the instant apparatus, the face-holder can be folded by collapsing multi-stage telescopic legs. In another embodiment, the face-holder comprises of a chin-rest 104 and a forehead rest 110 and only the portion between the chin-rest 104 and the instrument base 118 is collapsible using multi-stage telescopic legs (FIG. 3).

(8) In some other embodiments, the apparatus comprises of an eye-piece 112 which is optics and mechanics used to evaluate or treat the eye.

(9) In some embodiments, the apparatus comprises of a screen 106 to display measurement or imaging results. Thus, the display can host diagnostic-assisting results. In some other embodiments the display screen 106 is a touch-sensitive screen. In some other embodiments, the display could be 3-D showing 3-dimensional features of the data or the measurements or anatomic features.

(10) In some embodiments, the apparatus comprises of a keyboard 108 to control the apparatus. The keyboard 108 can optionally comprise of a mouse or a controlling ball or a joystick. In some other embodiments the keyboard 108 is a touch-sensitive screen.

(11) In some embodiments, the eye-piece is shifted using a precision slide to evaluate or treat the left or right eye. In some other embodiments, the eye-piece is shifted using a sliding rod. In some embodiments, the eye-piece is positioned using a micro-precision slide.

(12) In some embodiments, the eye-piece has railings to move it forward or backward with respect to the patient's eye.

(13) In some embodiments, the foldable face-holder apparatus comprises of the means for an eye-fixation target. These means could comprise of a display inside the eye-piece 112. The display could have an eye-fixation target as desired by the operator of the apparatus.

(14) In some embodiments, the base 118 of the apparatus comprises of electronics and optical components. In some other embodiments of the invention, the apparatus comprises of fiber or cables running from the base 118 to the eye-piece 112.

(15) FIG. 2 depicts the folded version of the “foldable face-holder apparatus” 100. It is folded at the hinge 114. In some embodiments, the face-holder can be folded at least once and possibly multiple times. In another embodiment of the instant apparatus, the face-holder can be folded by collapsing multi-stage telescopic legs. In another embodiment, the face-holder comprises of a chin-rest 104 and a forehead rest 110 and only the portion between the chin-rest 104 and the instrument base 118 is collapsible using multi-stage telescopic legs as illustrated in FIG. 3. The collapsed legs are shown as 302 and elongated legs are shown as 304 in FIG. 3.

(16) In one more embodiment, there is a folding hinge 114 at or near the chin-rest 104.

(17) In another embodiment, the proposed ophthalmic system comprises of at least one means to hold the face of a patient (i.e., face-holder) and the means to eject (using a button) or remove the face-holder from the base of the instrument.

(18) In another embodiment, the chin-rest can be removed or ejected from the base of the instrument. In another embodiment, the chin-rest is attached to the base of the instrument. In some other embodiments, the chin-rest-attachment is removable.

(19) In some embodiments, all the apparatus components reside in a brief-case as shown in FIG. 1. In some embodiments, the brief-case has wheels and/or a handle to assist transportation.

(20) In some embodiments, the apparatus operates on batteries. In some other embodiments, these batteries can be rechargeable batteries. The batteries can be charged independently or by connecting a charger to the apparatus. The charger can source power from the electrical wiring in a building. The charger (termed a vehicle charger) can also source power from a vehicle such as a car or a bus or a truck or a van. The charger can also source power from the vehicle's engine.

(21) In some embodiments, the apparatus could comprise of a projector (sometimes termed pico-projector) to display the results on a wall or a screen.

(22) In some embodiments, the apparatus is used for ophthalmic imaging. Ophthalmic imaging includes (but does not limit to) retinal imaging and anterior segment.

(23) In some other embodiments, the apparatus is used for optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging (as described in Huang et al 1991, Fercher 1996, U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,501). Optical coherence domain reflectometry (OCDR) is a 1-dimensional measurement system as explained in (US patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,202,745), and OCT is a 2-D extension of OCDR (as described in Huang et al 1991, Fercher 1996, U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,501). Since OCT and OCDR are similar, sometimes we would refer these as OCT-OCDR systems. The diagnostic components or systems based on OCT-OCDR, will be called as OCT-OCDR based diagnostic components.

(24) In some other embodiments, the foldable face-holder apparatus comprises for optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging apparatus and the OCT system apparatus comprises of a spectrometer to implement spectral-domain OCT (as described in De Boer et al 2003, Wojtkowski et al 2004, Hausler & Lindner J. Biomed. Opt. 3(1), 21-31 (Jan. 01, 1998)).

(25) In some other embodiments, the foldable face-holder system is used for optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging and the OCT system comprises of a tunable wavelength (or frequency) light source to implement swept-source OCT (as described in S R Chinn, E A Swanson, J G Fujimoto—Optics Letters, 1997; M A Choma, M V Sarunic, C Yan et al—Optics Express, 2003; Y Yasuno, V D Madjarova, S Makita, M Akiba et at—Optics Express 2005).

(26) In some other embodiments, the foldable face-holder system is used for optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging and the OCT system comprises of a depth-scanning reference mirror to implement time-domain OCT (as described in Huang et al 1991, Fercher 1996, U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,501).

(27) In some embodiments, compact, portable OCT-OCDR systems/apparatus (as described in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 12/706,717, 12/732,484, 13/723,006, 12/941,991) can be used as these systems/apparatus can easily fit in a box or a briefcase.

(28) Various materials can be used to construct the foldable face-holder apparatus. Some examples are (not by limitation) 6061 aluminum alloy (i.e., UNS A96061) and its various varieties including (but not limited to) 6061-O, 6061-T4, 6061-T4 etc.; Nickel-chromium alloys such as INCONEL® (a registered trademark of the INCO family of companies) alloy 600; stainless steel and related alloys (e.g., UNS N02200, UNS N02201, UNS N04400, UNS N06600, UNS N06625, UNS N08800, UNS N08825, UNS N10276, UNS N08020, etc.) heat and chemical resistant polymers such as TOPAS® COC (by Topas Advanced Polymers). Acetal homopolymer such as Dupont's Delrin® can also be used as these polymers are tough, can sustain high stress and strain and are strong, and yet easily moldable.

(29) Some more materials that can be used to construct the foldable face-holder apparatus include (not by limitation) High-density polyethylene (HDPE), Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), Polyether ether ketone (PEEK).

(30) The apparatus can be built (by way of example and not by limitation) by the process of reaction injection molding, which can produce high-strength, lightweight and flexible parts using thermosetting polymers such as polyurethane.

(31) The apparatus could also be built (by way of example and not by limitation) by structural reaction injection molding (SRIM), where fiber meshes are used as a reinforcing agent.

(32) The apparatus could also be built (by way of example and not by limitation) by injection molding, using thermoplastics or thermosetting plastics.

(33) The apparatus could also be built (by way of example and not by limitation) by normal machining and assembly.

(34) In some embodiments, the ophthalmic system comprises of at least one means to hold the face of a patient (i.e., face-holder), an ocular diagnostic or therapeutic component and the means to remove the face-holder 112 from the apparatus and attach to the patient's face. The face-holder's eye-piece 112 is attached to the eyes using a head-band.

(35) In some other embodiments, the face-holder is attached to the eyes using spectacles-type assembly. The eye-piece may be moved from one eye to the other for analyzing both the eyes.

(36) The “foldable face-holder apparatus” and related systems could be used for fundus photography (httn://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundus_photography), scanning retinal imaging (e.g., T R Friberg, A Pandya et al 2003), perimetry, corneal topography, auto-refractors, and many other ophthalmic modalities.