| Research Abstract |
Intraocular pressure (IOP) is one of the most important parameter to diagnose and manage glaucoma. To measure IOP efficiently and accurately, we have been working on developing a handy home-use tonometry.
We nave done several basic studies for developing a better tonometry. Two major subjects were investigated, namely, subjects from an organic aspect and psychological aspect. As that from organic aspect, effects of corneal thickness and age-related structural change of the anterior chamber angle on the IOP measurement were investigated. We have revealed that patients with ocular hypertension had thicker cornea than healthy subjects and that patients with normal tension glaucoma had thinner cornea than healthy subjects. Moreover, experimentally ablated cornea in rabbits resulted in lowering apparent values of IOP measured by applanation tonometry. Those results indicate that it is necessary to take corneal thickness into consideration when IOP measurement. Anterior chamber angle biometry
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study revealed that angle width decreased by a age-related manner even in the healthy subjects, which means IOP measurement with different body positions are necessary to find out possible patients with angle closure glaucoma, especially in elderly people.
As psychological aspect, we investigated circadian rhythm of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and personality of patients with glaucoma. In results, we have revealed that a disturbance of the circadian rhythm of the ANS may exist in glaucoma patients and that personality of patients with glaucoma was high neuroticism, low openness, and low agreeableness. It is well known that IOP is regulated by ANS and that psychological change influences the ANS status. Therefore, those psychological characteristics of patients with glaucoma should be taken into consideration when to develop reliable instrument for IOP measurement.
There are still several problems to develop a handy home-use tonometry beside above mentioned points ; low reliability, cost, poor handling, and poor interface. However, we will continue to develop a better handy hone-use tonometry. Less
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