[The importance of diurnal pressure curve in evaluation of glaucoma patients].

UNLABELLED

The assessment of intraocular pressure diurnal curve is not a routine examination. In some situations it might be useful. Determining real intraocular pressure peaks during the nictemeral rhythm can orient the diagnosis to better estimate medication efficiency.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

We selected for this study 27 normal patients (52 eyes) and 29 glaucomatous patients (56 eyes). We chose to determine intraocular pressure every three hours, excluding the 3 a.m. in the night determination, thus obtaining a 7 values curve.

RESULTS

We compared the data obtained with 5 values curve, excluding the 6 a.m. and 12 p.m. determinations. Analyzing data we observed that there was no statistical difference between pressure averages measured either 7 times or 5 times during the nictemeral rhythm In a small amount of cases, 4 eyes in the normal patients group and 3 eyes in the glaucomatous patients group, important data are excluded by the 5 values nictemeral curve.

CONCLUSION

We believe that a 5 determinations pressure curve is sufficient enough to estimate correctly a glaucomatous patient regarding his intraocular pressure regimen.