Combined system of biomicroscopic vitreous videography and photography.

Abstract

To combine the techniques of biomicroscopic vitreous videography and vitreous photography when examining patients with age- or disease-related vitreous changes. We performed biomicroscopic vitreous videography and photography using the newly developed digital photo camera (one-half-inch three-charged coupled device camera with high resolution of 800 x 800 television lines) connected to a slit-lamp biomicroscope and compared it with conventional 35-mm slit-lamp photography in 24 consecutive eyes of 19 patients with idiopathic macular breaks. Stage 1 macular breaks were found in three eyes, stage 2 in four eyes, stage 3 in 11 eyes, and stage 4 in six eyes. Both vitreous videographs and still photographs were recorded and reviewed rapidly in one system. Using this system, dynamic vitreous changes and still vitreous images were documented clearly with real-time television monitoring without using flash illumination. The still images obtained from this system were better than those obtained using conventional 35-mm slit-lamp photography in cases with stage 1, 2, and 3 macular breaks (P = 0.0000000001 by Fisher's exact test). This combined system of biomicroscopic vitreous videography and photography may become the standard system of biomicroscopic vitreous examination.