A preliminary study on the Ocular Blood Flow (OBF) of Hong Kong Chinese

The Ocular Blood Flow (OBF) Tonometer is an objective instrument to measure the Pulsatile Ocular Blood Flow (POBF), Pulse Amplitude (PA) and Pulse Rat e (PR). It also provides the minimum intraocular pressure (IOPmin) simultan eously. This preliminary study applied the OBF Tonometer on 74 Hong Kong Ch inese. They had their POBF measured followed by the Goldmann Applanation To nometer (GAT). The OBF tonometer overestimates the IOP slightly. The averag e POBF result was smaller (661.2 mu l/min) than the previous studies. The e ffect of myopia of our sample (mean spherical equivalent -4.27 D) could be one of the contributing factors. Other factors include age and racial diffe rence. Twenty-two subjects had their POBF measured again by the same practi tioner and different practitioner for the reproducibility variation assessm ents. The POBF, PA and IOPmin were found to be repeatable between sessions. The POBF "norm" in Hong Kong Chinese needs to be established from a larger sample size and from a comparison on an age and refraction matched Caucasi an group. (C) 1999 The College of Optometrists. Published by Elsevier Scien ce Ltd. All rights reserved.