System and method for ophthalmic surface measurements based on objective quality estimation

1. A method of evaluating a topography of a corneal surface of an eye of a patient, the method comprising:

measuring a topography elevation field for the patient eye corneal surface;

determining a measured Zernike amplitude profile for the patient eye based on the topography elevation field;

combining the measured Zernike amplitude profile with a priori corneal surface information to provide an estimated Zernike amplitude profile and an estimated Zernike amplitude covariance matrix for the patient eye, the a priori corneal surface information comprising mean and covariance Zernike amplitude profiles associated with multiple corneal surfaces of a general population;

constructing a corneal topography map for the patient based on the estimated Zernike amplitude profile;

constructing a corneal topography uncertainty map for the patient based on the estimated Zernike covariance matrix; and

evaluating the patient corneal surface topography based on the corneal topography map and the corneal uncertainty map.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the measured Zernike amplitude profile for the patient eye is determined by decomposing the topography elevation field of the patient eye corneal surface into a Zernike series representation.

3. The method according to claim 1 , where the a priori corneal surface information is obtained by:

acquiring individual topography elevation fields corresponding respectively to individual eyes of the general population;

decomposing the individual topography elevation fields into corresponding Zernike series representations;

evaluating a mean and a variance of amplitudes of the Zernike series representations; and

preparing the a priori information from the mean and the variance of amplitudes of the Zernike series representations.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the combining step comprises inputting the a priori information into a Kalman-Bucy filter together with the measured Zernike amplitude profile.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the inputting step comprises applying the Kalman-Bucy filter according to:

A k =A k (prior) +{circumflex over (K)}·{{right arrow over (H)}−Ĝ·A k (prior) }

{circumflex over (M)}={circumflex over (K)}·{Î−{circumflex over (K)}Ĝ}·{circumflex over (M)} (prior)

wherein A k corresponds to the estimated Zernike amplitude profile for the patient eye, A k (prior) corresponds to the a priori mean Zernike amplitude profile associated with the multiple general population corneal surfaces, {circumflex over (K)} represents a Kalman-Bucy gain, {right arrow over (H)} corresponds to a vector of the measured elevation field for the patient eye corneal surface, and Ĝ is an operator of surface reconstruction from the Zernike amplitudes, and

wherein {circumflex over (M)} corresponds to the estimated Zernike amplitude covariance matrix for the patient eye, Î is a unitary matrix, and {circumflex over (M)} (prior) corresponds to the a priori covariance Zernike amplitude profile associated with the multiple general population corneal surfaces.

6. A method of planning a refractive correction treatment for an eye of a patient, the method comprising:

obtaining a measured Zernike amplitude profile for the patient eye, the measured Zernike amplitude profile based on a measured topography elevation field for a corneal surface of the patient eye;

combining the measured Zernike amplitude profile with a priori corneal surface information to provide an estimated Zernike amplitude profile and an estimated Zernike amplitude covariance matrix for the patient eye, the a priori corneal surface information comprising a mean and covariance Zernike amplitude profiles associated with multiple corneal surfaces of a general population;

constructing a corneal topography uncertainty map for the patient based on the estimated Zernike covariance matrix;

constructing a corneal topography map for the patient based on the estimated Zernike amplitude profile and the corneal topography uncertainty map;

determining ablation properties locally across the corneal surface of the patient eye based on the corneal topography map; and

formulating a treatment plan using the ablation properties by adjusting a first virtual ablation shape to form a second virtual ablation shape, the first virtual shape representing a depth of material to be removed from a treatment area to form a desired shape, the second virtual shape being formed from the first virtual shape in response to the corneal topography map.

7. A method of treating a cornea of a patient eye with a laser beam, the method comprising:

obtaining a measured Zernike amplitude profile for the patient eye, the measured Zernike amplitude profile based on a measured topography elevation field for a corneal surface of the patient eye;

combining the measured Zernike amplitude profile with a priori corneal surface information to provide an estimated Zernike amplitude profile and an estimated Zernike amplitude covariance matrix for the patient eye, the a priori corneal surface information comprising mean and covariance Zernike amplitude profiles associated with multiple corneal surfaces of a general population;

constructing a corneal topography uncertainty map for the patient based on the estimated Zernike covariance matrix;

constructing a corneal topography map for the patient based on the estimated Zernike amplitude profile and the corneal topography uncertainty map;

mapping angles between the corneal surface and the laser beam over a treatment area;

determining ablation properties locally across the treatment area in response to the mapped angles;

formulating a treatment plan using the ablation properties by adjusting a first virtual ablation shape to form a second virtual ablation shape, the first virtual shape representing a depth of material to be removed from the treatment area to form a desired shape, the second virtual shape being formed from the first virtual shape in response to the mapped angles; and

ablating the treatment area according to the treatment plan to form the desired shape in the corneal surface.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the desired shape is based at least in part on a result of a measurement selected from the group consisting of an aberration measurement of the eye, a refractive measurement of the eye, and a topography measurement of the eye.

9. A system for treating a corneal surface of a patient eye with a laser beam, the eye having a refractive defect, wherein a desired refractive correcting shape mitigates the refractive defect, the system comprising:

a laser emitting a beam of an ablative light energy; and

at least one processor coupled to the laser beam and having a computer program, the computer program embodying instructions for:

combining a measured Zernike amplitude profile for the patient eye with a priori corneal surface information to provide an estimated Zernike amplitude profile and an estimated Zernike amplitude covariance matrix for the patient eye, the a priori corneal surface information comprising mean and covariance Zernike amplitude profiles associated with multiple corneal surfaces of a general population, and the measured Zernike amplitude profile for the patient eye based on a measured topography elevation field of the patient eye corneal surface;

constructing a corneal topography uncertainty map for the patient based on the estimated Zernike covariance matrix;

constructing a corneal topography map for the patient based on the estimated Zernike amplitude profile and the corneal topography uncertainty map;

determining ablation properties locally across the corneal surface of the patient eye based on the corneal topography map;

formulating a treatment plan using the ablation properties by adjusting a first virtual ablation shape to form a second virtual ablation shape, the first virtual shape representing a depth of material to be removed from a treatment area to form a desired shape, the second virtual shape being formed from the first virtual shape in response to the corneal topography map; and

controlling an ablative treatment using the treatment plan from the second virtual shape so that the treatment forms the desired refractive correcting shape in the surface.

10. A method of evaluating an optical tissue of an eye, the method comprising:

combining a measured orthogonal polynomial amplitude profile for the patient eye with a priori optical tissue information to provide an estimated orthogonal polynomial amplitude profile and an estimated orthogonal polynomial amplitude covariance matrix for the patient eye, the a priori optical tissue information comprising mean and covariance orthogonal polynomial amplitude profiles associated with multiple optical tissue measurements of a general population, and the measured orthogonal polynomial amplitude profile for the patient eye based on a measured topography elevation field of the patient eye corneal surface;

constructing an optical tissue uncertainty map for the patient based on the estimated orthogonal polynomial covariance matrix, the uncertainty map representing a measure of measurement quality; and

evaluating the optical tissue of the patient eye based on the estimated orthogonal polynomial amplitude profile and the optical tissue uncertainty map.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the measured orthogonal polynomial amplitude profile for the patient eye is based on a measurement selected from the group consisting of a corneal surface topography measurement of the eye and a wavefront measurement of the eye.

12. A method for evaluating the accuracy of an optical tissue measurement of an eye of a patient, the method comprising:

obtaining amplitude data corresponding to the optical tissue measurement of the patient eye, the amplitude data based on a measured topography elevation field for a corneal surface of the patient eye;

obtaining amplitude data and covariance data corresponding to optical tissue measurements of multiple eyes of a population;

combining the amplitude data corresponding to the patient measurement with the amplitude data and covariance data corresponding to the population measurements, so as to obtain estimated amplitude data and estimated covariance data;

constructing a representation of the patient optical tissue based on the estimated amplitude data;

constructing an uncertainty representation of the patient optical tissue based on the estimated covariance data; and

evaluating the accuracy of the optical tissue measurement based on the representation of the patient optical tissue and the uncertainty representation of the patient optical tissue.