Scheimpflug photography as a tool for anterior eye segment biometry

Abstract

The Scheimpflug photographic techniques developed in the early 1900s were applied to the ophthalmological field as an anterior eye segment documentation system in the late 1960s and the Scheimpflug camera became commercially available for lens research during the 1980s. Based on the studies utilizing this methodology during the past 10 years, the author developed a new type of device with a CCD camera that is able to analyze data at an almost real-time level with an on-lined computer system. The accuracy of data and reproducibility of documented findings were proved to be satisfactory for both basic and clinical studies of animal and human lenses. Recently, application of this methodology has widened to other parts of anterior eye segment documentation or biometry. Three-dimensional expression of lens findings, which has been the final goal of this photographic application, has already been developed and its significance as an examination will be recognized in the ophthalmological field in the very near future.