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A N D
E X P E R I M E N T A L
OPTOMETRY
ORIGINAL PAPER
Barrie Ontario
Accepted for publication: 12 February 2001
In 1984, Kozlowski, Mainster and Avila derived a formula for the power of the lens
needed in the negative lens field expander. Their method is based on the principle of
telescopic magnification. In this technical note, we use the principle of spectacle
magnification and obtain the power of the same lens. Both methods are presented for
comparison. Practitioners may choose either method in determining the power of the
negative lens field expander for their low vision patients, but the spectacle magnification
method has the advantages of simplicity and familiarity to ophthalmic practitioners.
(Clin Exp Optom 2001; 84: 3: 162164)
To enable low vision patients with peripheral field loss to improve mobility and
general orientation in unknown surroundings, a simple, inexpensive field
expansion device is usually used. The device is a hand-held negative-power, largediameter lens placed at a fixed distance
in front of the eye. It is analogous to a
reverse Galilean telescope, where the
hand-held negative lens represents the
objective and the accommodation of the
patient represents its ocular (eyepiece).
When a reverse Galilean telescope is used
as a field expander in the conventional
way, there is usually a lack of correlation
between the size of the patients residual
visual field and the field of view obtained
by the device. Based on the principle
of magnification of the telescope,
Kozlowski, Mainster and Avila1 derived a
few simple formulae, taking the visual
field factor into consideration. In this
technical note, an alternate method to
obtain the same entity is presented. The
principle of spectacle magnification is
162
By trigonometry,
t=
d
2tan
(1)
Where d is the diameter of the lens in metres, t is the distance of the lens from the
nodal point (N) of the eye and is the
half angle of the patients remaining visual
field.
When is a small angle in radian, tan
t= d
2
When is in degrees,
t=
d
2( /180 )
28.6d
30d
(2)
Fe
Fo
Where M is the magnification, F e the
equivalent powers of the eyepiece and Fo
the power of the objective lens.
The field expander is treated as a
reverse Galilean telescopic system. The
negative lens represents the objective (Fo )
and the positive Fresnel lens attached to
the patients standard spectacle correction
and/or the patients accommodation
(Acc) represents the eyelens (Fe ).The magnification (M) of the system is:
M= -
M= -
Acc
Fe
=Fo
Fo
(3)
(4)
t-(1/Fo )
where f = 1/Fo
1
1-tF0
By rearrangement,
F0 =
M-1
Mt
1-M in
t
163
h'
te - f
tan 2 =
h'
-f
SM =
SM =
tan 1
h'/(te - f)
=
tan 2
h'/ f
1
1 - te Fo
M=
tan 10
10
tan 30
30
= 0.333
Practically, the value is approximately
equal to the ratio of the original field to
the expanded field.
The maximum eye lens distance (t ) is
calculated from Equation (2).
t=
30d
(30)(0.035)
=
5
= 0.21 m
By the equation derived from telescopic
magnification,
Fo =
M-1
Mt
0.333 -1
(0.333)(0.21)
- 0.667
0.07
By rearrangement,
1
= 1 - te Fo
SM
Min = 1 - te Fo
Fo =
1-Min
te
M-1
Mte
M-1
M-1
Mte
Mt
=
1 - Min
t
= -9.53 D
By the equation derived from spectacle
magnification,
SM =
1
1 - t Fo
By rearrangement,
Fo =
(1-Min )
t
1-3
0.21
= -9.53 D
Thus the equation for spectacle magnification can also be used to obtain the
power of the lens. Spectacle magnification
is based on angular magnification. It is
simple and is familiar to ophthalmic
practitioners.
164
REFERENCE
1. Kozlowski JM, Mainster MA, Avila MP.
Negativelens field expander. Arch
Ophthalmol 1984; 102: 1182-1184.
Authors address:
Professor George Woo
Faculty of Health and Social Sciences
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Hung Hom, Kowloon
Hong Kong SAR
CHINA