New Astigmatic Lenses Make the Heidelberg Retina Tomograph II Easier to Use and More Comfortable for Patients.

Business Editors, Health/Medical Writers

CARLSBAD, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Jan. 28, 2002

Heidelberg Engineering, the leading developer of scanning laser ophthalmic devices, today introduced a set of six astigmatic lenses for its Heidelberg Retina Tomograph II (HRT II). These new lenses attach magnetically to the HRT II eyepiece, allowing astigmatic patients to be examined for glaucoma or macular edema without wearing their glasses. This modification allows the confocal scanning laser tomograph to be aligned directly with the patient's eye, permitting easier imaging of the optic nerve head. It also ensures that technicians no longer need to image through a progressive or bifocal lens that has varied refractive power and makes it easier for patients to relax during the examination.

"The HRT II has always been able to scan an astigmatic patient's optic nerve head through glasses to produce its unique 3-D Topography image, and monitor the progression of any early structural changes that are indicative of glaucoma," said John Hawley, Heidelberg Engineering's vice president. "These astigmatic lenses simply allow the patient to take the test without wearing glasses, thus making the examination easier for the operator to perform and more comfortable for the subject."

An HRT II examination is very patient-friendly; it does not require dilation and takes less than five seconds to produce an accurate topographic map of the patient's optic nerve. It uses a confocal scanning laser to capture as many as 64 images at different heights throughout the patient's optic nerve head. It automatically takes three sets of images, adjusts for the eye's natural movement, and computes a mean. The resulting 3-D Topography image measures 384 x 384 pixels and is composed of nearly 148,000 height measurements. As this detailed image is composed entirely from data points without software interpretation, it is "interpolation-free" and highly accurate.

"These new lenses can also be used in conjunction with the HRT II's Macular Edema Module, which we introduced in November," Hawley added. "That setup would allow eye doctors to measure and monitor the treatment of cystoid and diabetic macular edema in their astigmatic patients just as easily as they can now detect glaucomatous changes. However, they can still make their astigmatic correction using the patient's glasses or contact lenses should they choose to do so."

The new astigmatic lenses range in power from 1.00 to 6.00 diopters. Doctors can request them in a plus cylinder or negative cylinder form, or both. Each six-lens set is supplied in a padded wooden box.

About Heidelberg Engineering

Headquartered in Dossenheim, Germany, Heidelberg Engineering has been developing retinal imaging technologies for use in research and clinical practice for more than a decade. In 1991, the company introduced the Heidelberg Retina Tomograph (HRT), the first laser scanning system for routine glaucoma examinations. Its more recent products have included the Heidelberg Retina Tomograph II (HRT II), Heidelberg Retina Angiograph (HRA) and Heidelberg Retina Flowmeter (HRF). The HRA produces high-quality Fluorescein and ICG angiographies simultaneously, and is the only system that can clearly identify "feeder vessels" in the treatment of age-related macular degeneration. The HRF measures the retinal microcirculation, which may have important future applications. The company maintains offices in Carlsbad, Calif., and Smithfield, RI. For more information, please visit the Heidelberg Engineering website at www.HeidelbergEngineering.com.