EVALUATION OF ALBUMIN CONCENTRATION IN RABBIT ANTERIOR-CHAMBER WITH LASER FLARE-CELL METER

To find an appropriate way of using Kowa's laser hare-cell meter in ev aluating the anterior chamber albumin concentration, we characterized the relationship among the flare intensity determined with the flare-c ell meter in terms of photon count/ms (flare value), flare value conve rted to albumin concentration, and anterior chamber albumin concentrat ion in drug-treated rabbit eyes. Flare measurement was done in rabbits that received intravenous administration of fluorescein isothiocyanat e-labeled albumin and instillation of prostaglandin E(1), pilocarpine, or tropicamide, Flare value, anterior chamber fluorescence, plasma fl uorescence, and plasma albumin concentration were determined. Anterior chamber albumin concentration was calculated from the plasma albumin concentration and the corrected aqueous/plasma fluorescence ratio. The correlation between the flare value converted to albumin concentratio n (Alb(equiv)) and the anterior chamber albumin concentration (Alb(ac) ) had two phases: 1) Linear correlation was found when the flare value was below 100 photon count/ms: Alb(ac) = 0.53 Alb(equiv) - 0.006, r = 0.98; 2) When the flare value was above 100 photon count/ms, the corr elation was lower and had a different slope. In this condition, the Al b(ac) was correlated better with the flare value itself: Alb(ac) = 0.0 042 [flare value] + 0.17, r = 0.88. The results suggested that anterio r chamber albumin concentration is evaluated quantitatively from the c onverted flare value when the flare value is below 100 photon count/ms and from the flare value itself when the flare value is above that le vel.