Variation of laser-induced retinal injury thresholds with retinal irradiated area: 0.1-s duration, 514-nm exposures

David J. Lund; Peter R. Edsall; Bruce E. Stuck; Karl Schulmeister

doi:10.1117/1.2714810

1 March 2007 Variation of laser-induced retinal injury thresholds with retinal irradiated area: 0.1-s duration, 514-nm exposures

David J. Lund, Peter R. Edsall, Bruce E. Stuck, Karl Schulmeister

Author Affiliations +

Journal of Biomedical Optics, Vol. 12, Issue 2, 024023 (March 2007). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.2714810

Abstract

The retinal injury threshold dose for laser exposure varies as a function of the irradiated area on the retina. Zuclich reported thresholds for laser-induced retinal injury from 532 nm, nanosecond-duration laser exposures that varied as the square of the diameter of the irradiated area on the retina. We report data for 0.1-s-duration retinal exposures to 514-nm, argon laser irradiation. Thresholds for macular injury at 24 h are 1.05, 1.40, 1.77, 3.58, 8.60, and 18.6 mJ for retinal exposures at irradiance diameters of 20, 69, 136, 281, 562, and 1081 µm, respectively. These thresholds vary as the diameter of the irradiated retinal area. The relationship between the retinal injury threshold and retinal irradiance diameter is a function of the exposure duration. The 0.1-s-duration data of this experiment and the nanosecond-duration data of Zuclich show that the ED50 (50% effective dose) for exposure to a highly collimated beam does not decrease relative to the value obtained for a retinal irradiance diameter of 100 μm. These results can form the basis to improve current laser safety guidelines in the nanosecond-duration regime. These results are relevant for ophthalmic devices incorporating both wavefront correction and retinal exposure to a collimated laser.

©(2007) Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

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David J. Lund, Peter R. Edsall, Bruce E. Stuck, and Karl Schulmeister "Variation of laser-induced retinal injury thresholds with retinal irradiated area: 0.1-s duration, 514-nm exposures," Journal of Biomedical Optics 12(2), 024023 (1 March 2007). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.2714810

Published: 1 March 2007

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