title: Changes in intraocular pressure during acute exercise.
abstract: The effect of vigorous physical activity on intraocular pressure has been well documented. Other studies have only focused on pretest and posttest measurements of intraocular pressure. This study presents a continuous evaluation of intraocular pressure during exercise and correlates changes in intraocular pressure with changes in heart rate through time. A total of 17 adult male and female subjects were submaximally tested on a bicycle ergometer using the Astrand-Rhyming protocol. The results of this test were used to design an individualized four-stage workload that would proportionally take each subject to 85% of a predicted maximum heart rate. During this test, intraocular pressure was measured at the end of each stage and through 15 min of recovery with an American Optical non-contact tonometer. A statistically significant decrease (p less than 0.05) in intraocular pressure was noted at the end of the fourth stage and during 1, 5, and 10 min of recovery; however, no trend was found to indicate a significant correlation between heart rate and intraocular pressure.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D007429:Intraocular Pressure; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D005082:Physical Exertion; D014065:Tonometry, Ocular / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods