Monitoring intraocular pressure

[mmiller]

Hi,

I'm friends with a couple whose infant daughter has Coat's disease and this
disease can cause an increase in the intraocular pressure of the affected
eye. Every few weeks the pressure is measured during a doctor visit, but
I'm interested in knowing if there are any methods of monitoring the intraocular
pressure at home? I've read some about this on the 'net and it seems that
aside from specialized equipment, which we don't have, that pressing the
fingers to the closed eye lids was used in the past (19th century); this is an
interesting DIY method, but doesn't seem accurate and would require training.

I've had an idea, but I don't know how practical it is. Hopefully someone can
comment on it: The idea rests on the assumption that changes in intraocular
pressure will change the dimensions of the eye. By placing a ruler next the
eye and taking a digital photo, some measurements could be made: diameter
of the pupil, distance from one corner of the eye to the other, etc. Is this feasible?
Does the shape of the eye change as the intraocular pressure changes?

Thanks for any input.

 

[HeyLeroy]

I have high intraocular pressure, which is checked every six months. I would guess that the size changes would be almost impossible to detect the way you describe. The equipment that is used at the eye doctor is a machine that directs a puff of air at the eyeball, and measures the deflection with a beam of light.

 

[mmiller]

I have high intraocular pressure, which is checked every six months. I would guess that the size changes would be almost impossible to detect the way you describe. The equipment that is used at the eye doctor is a machine that directs a puff of air at the eyeball, and measures the deflection with a beam of light.

Thanks for the reply. I've done some back of the envolope calculations and
drawn a few figures to help visualize things, and my conclusion matches yours.
It's the only idea I've come up with so far...

I've experenced the machine you describe (what a barbarous piece of equipment!)
and recently read about its operation. If your intraocular pressure is only measured
every six months and my friend's daughter has her's checked every few weeks
then maybe I'm wasting time trying to figure out how to monitor the pressure.
Still, I've learned a lot the past few days!

 

[nimzov]

We have glaucoma in my family. My father and grand-father suffered from it. I have my intra-ocular pressure checked once a year by my ophtalmologist. At this time the pressure is normal (without medication).

But what I do check more regularly by myself is my peripheral vision.

nimzo