A Study on Correlation of Intraocular Pressure and Blood Pressure in Different Age Groups

Intraocular pressure of the eye is governed by the formation, presence and out flow of the aqueous humor produced by the ciliary body of the eye. Any disturbances in this mechanism will lead to Glaucoma, a second leading cause of blindness in the world. Certain systemic parameters such as hypertension, age, sex etc will influence the levels of intraocular pressure and thence may form risk factors for glaucoma. The current study was aimed at know the relation of intraocular pressure and other systemic parameters especially of blood pressure.

The current prospective study carried out at Departments of Physiology and Ophthalmology, Government Medical College and General Hospital, Anantapuramu and included 150 subjects of which 75 were male and 75 were females. Standard methods were used for recording as well as analysis of data.

The results of this study indicated that IOP increased with age in both sexes and it higher in women than men. The relation is statistically significant with p value <0.0001. It can also be emphasized that values of blood pressure, mean arterial pressure and Pulse pressure positively correlated with the intraocular pressure.

It is recommended that Intra Ocular Pressure(IOP) estimation should be made as a routine health checkup in everyone, especially in females over 40 years of age, whose systemic blood pressure, mean arterial pressure and pulse pressure values are high because of their high chances of having high intraocular pressure.