Close-up on the Eye
April 23rd, 2009 by Ricardo LugoMy father practices one of the coolest medical specialties out there: he is an ophthalmologist.
I’m now (almost) halfway through my own medical school training, and started asking my father more about his practice. One day, he showed me a collection of pictures he has taken over the years, and I was amazed. His slides beautifully demonstrate every disease of the eye from the everyday pink-eye to the rarest of cases. His collection deserves scanning, there is no doubt. Maybe even make it into a searchable database.
But what about his new patients and new procedures? What if it were possible to convert his microscope to accommodate a digital camera? Well, this past weekend (after Paul’s Wedding… congrats, Paul & Lindsay!!!), we did it. Here’s the result:
Setup: Images taken with a Nikon D60. Topcon SL-6E Microscope has a mount for a camera, so we found someone who made a slit-lamp conversion kit to Nikon (via t-thread). Now, we can take digital images of the external structures in the eye. We are in the process of getting the Nikon hooked up to the old Topcon flash, but for now it seems ISO 1600 does a great job at a 1/30 exposure.
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:49 pm
now that looks like the optometrist office I wish I went to when I was a kid. is that the cataracts in the image taken from the side?
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:14 pm
Yup, those are the beginnings of cataracts!! I focused behind the iris, onto the lens, and with the fine beam you can see a diffuse scattering of light. A normal lens doesn’t scatter like that. Over time, the cataracts may become more opaque and start to hamper the vision - that’s when it’s time to find an ophthalmologist to operate on them.
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Here’s more on what my dad does… http://www.lugoeye.com
April 24th, 2009 at 10:14 am
Hey man very cool! Thanks for sharing.
I have friend of mine down here that’s an optometrist… I wonder if she’ll let me strap my camera onto her machine. I got her to let me see Karina’s eye. That was pretty cool but a bit difficult. Its a fine line between seeing something and a whole lot of nothing. I have some shots I did on Karina’s eye with my little P&S. No where as detailed but still looked cool. Let me look for them and maybe I’ll post them. Something to compare the difference between shooting with serious gear and no gear.