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Biometric characteristics affect measurements with blood flow analyzer: study
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Some measurements taken with a new ocular blood flow analyzer are influenced by corneal thickness or corneal radius, a study found. Physicians should take the limitations of this diagnostic tool into account when interpreting its measurements, researchers at Aston University in Birmingham, England, advised.
Andrew J. Morgan and colleagues investigated the influence of corneal topography and thickness on intraocular pressure and pulse amplitude measurements taken with Paradigm Medical’s Ocular Blood Flow Analyzer. The researchers measured the right eyes of 47 university students (mean age: 20 years) using Scheimpflug photography to determine central corneal thickness and corneal topography to determine mean corneal radius. IOP and pulse amplitude measurements were taken using the Ocular Blood Flow Analyzer pneumotonometer.
Mean IOP was 13.1 mm Hg and pulse amplitude was 3 mm Hg. IOP measurements made with the pneumotonometer correlated significantly with central corneal thickness, such that every 10 µm change in central corneal thickness was equivalent to a 0.3 mm Hg change in measured IOP. They did not correlate with corneal curvature. Conversely, pulse amplitude measurements correlated significantly with axial length and mean corneal radius but not corneal thickness.
The study is published in Current Eye Research.