Intraocular pressure by noncontact tonometry over an amniotic membrane patch in humans.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the reliability of noncontact tonometry (NCT) in measuring intraocular pressure (IOP) over a combination of amniotic membrane (AM) patch and therapeutic soft contact lens (TSCL) in normal human eyes.


METHODS
Experimental study.


METHODS
Twenty-five healthy volunteers (twenty males, five females) participated in this study. After topical anesthesia, IOP was measured using noncontact tonometry before and after the application of a single layer of AM to the right eye and a double layer of AM to the left eye. To enable the IOP measurement by NCT, a TSCL was placed over the AM patch. The thickness of a single or a double layer of AM was measured by pachymetry and correlated with the IOP reading.


RESULTS
We found no statistical difference between IOPs measured with and without a combination of a single-layer AM/TSCL (P = .734). In contrast, the IOPs measured over a combination of a double-layer AM/TSCL decreased significantly when compared with the control (P < .0001). The average thicknesses of the single and the double layer of AM were 72.4 +/- 15.0 mum and 126.9 +/- 14.6 mum (mean +/- SD), respectively. There was a negative correlation between total AM thickness and IOP change (r = -.481, P = .0008).


CONCLUSIONS
We found that it is reliable to measure IOP by NCT through a combination of a single-layer AM/TSCL on normal human eyes. However, IOP measured by NCT over a combination of a double-layer AM/TSCL was inaccurate and tended to be an underestimation.
Department of Ophthalmology, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medical Science, 12-1 Takara-machi, Kanazawa, Ishikawa-ken 920-8641, Japan.
Tsuyoshi
T
Yoshita
Akira
A
Kobayashi
Mami
M
Takahashi
Kazuhisa
K
Sugiyama
Scheffer C G
SC
Tseng
D000328:Adult; D000650:Amnion / Q000502:physiology*; D001684:Biological Dressings; D003263:Contact Lenses, Hydrophilic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007429:Intraocular Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014065:Tonometry, Ocular