Generalized ray tracing method for the calculation of the peripheral refraction induced by an ophthalmic lens

Abstract

This thesis proposes a method to evaluate and quantify in a precise way the peripheral refraction induced by an ophthalmic lens. The motivation for this work stems from the progression of myopia and its possible causes; two of them are particularly key for this PhD: (a) Peripheral refraction of the eye may have an important role in the progression of myopia and (b) ophthalmic lenses are the compensating element more used in children and teenagers. These two elements fully justify the need for a reliable method to quantify the induced peripheral refraction by an ophthalmic lens. This method is based on two pillars: first, it must accurately assess the design of the ophthalmic lens and, second, it should consider what peripheral refractive pattern is acting, that is, without compensating element. The proposed method takes the advantages provided by the ray tracing strategies used in the classic design of ophthalmic lenses but applying them in parallel with amendments to evaluate the peripheral refraction. Thus, the simple scheme used in the classic design of ophthalmic lenses containing a remote sphere and a small aperture at the center of rotation of the eye becomes a scheme where the retina conjugate surface (RCS) and the nodal point of the eye play equivalent roles. In our case, the reference for ray tracing is the nodal point of the eye and the reference for measuring the induced peripheral refraction is the RCS. Ray tracing is based on a finite ray tracing (FRT) from the image space to the object space and on a generalized ray tracing (GRT) from object space to image space. Both have been implemented in a Matlab program and validated to provide a powerful tool for our purpose. GRT allows a quick and accurate assessment of the oblique astigmatism, ie the tangential and sagittal focal lens, in wide field of view considering accurately the lens design. This considers that each ray has a small wavefront associated traveling perpendicular to it. By GRT we are able to know how the wavefront shape changes when is propagated and refracted. Therefore, it is mandatory to have a locally description of the geometry of both the wavefront and the refractive surface at the point where the ray arrives to the refractive surface. This local description is determined by the normal and by the principal curvatures and directions of these surfaces at the point of interest; they can be obtained from a parametric description of the surface and then using Gaussian fundamental forms. This ray tracing procedure has been developed for the general case of any geometry to the surfaces of the ophthalmic lens and has been detailed for the case of an astigmatic lens. For calculating the induced peripheral refraction, a surface is modeled reflecting the peripheral refractive initial values before entering the lens; this is the aforementioned RCS. Two methods have been proposed to model this RCS. One is based on the trends observed in the different studies and uses three-dimensional surfaces power vectors associated with peripheral refraction. The second method uses experimental measurements obtained along four meridians of the retina to interpolate a surface. The expression of these surfaces by power vectors can easily be combined with the results obtained by tracing rays through the lens for the calculation of the induced peripheral refraction. We present in this manuscript some specific examples of how variations on the lens geometry modified the induced peripheral refraction. This opens up the possibility of custom designs ophthalmic lenses to prevent the progression of myopia.