This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Disposable tonometer comparable to Goldmann in study
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
The Tonosafe disposable tonometer takes accurate IOP measurements, even at elevated pressure levels, according to a group of Australian researchers.
Peter Kim, MB, BS(Hons), and colleagues at Liverpool Hospital in New South Wales measured the IOPs of 137 eyes of 69 patients using both the Tonosafe disposable prism head and the Goldmann tonometer. Patients ranged in age from 23 to 93 years. Patients with corneal or external disease were excluded.
The examiners who performed the tonometry were masked, and a third researcher read the IOP measurements. The order of use of the two tonometers was randomized, the study authors said. The researchers waited a minimum of 15 minutes between measurements.
With Goldmann tonometry, the mean IOP was 17.44 mm Hg. With the disposable device, the mean IOP was 17.58 mm Hg. The mean difference was not statistically relevant, the authors said.
A subgroup analysis on eyes with IOPs higher than 21 mm Hg showed that the Tonosafe reading was on average 0.15 mm Hg higher than the Goldmann reading. There was a high level of correlation between the IOP measurements with the two heads, the authors said.
The study is published in the August issue of Clinical & Experimental Ophthalmology.