REPRODUCIBILITY OF POSTURAL CHANGES IN INTRAOCULAR-PRESSURE WITH THE TONO-PEN AND PULSAIR TONOMETERS

Reproducibility of measurements of postural changes in intraocular pre ssure was determined by using the Tono-Pen (Mentor O & O, Inc., Norwel l, Massachusetts) and Pulsair (Keeler Instruments, Inc., Broomhall, Pe nnsylvania) tonometers. Thirty subjects had three repeated sitting and reclining measurements performed on three separate visit days. Reprod ucibility coefficients of 3.3% for the Tono-Pen and 6.3% for the Pulsa ir were obtained for the within-visit postural change measurements. Ac ross-visit reproducibility coefficients were 7.9% and 26.2% for the To no-Pen and Pulsair, respectively. The estimated standard deviations fo r both the within-visit and across-visit postural change measurements were high for both instruments. These results indicate poor reproducib ility of measurements of postural changes in intraocular pressure.