A Comparative Study Relating Water Drinking Test and Intra Ocular Pressure in Different Age Groups

Abstract

AIM:To determine the behavior of IOP in different age groups among normal populations after water drinking test for a period of time. MATERIALS AND METHODS:This is a prospective study involving normal healthy individual taken from different age groups 20-50 years,with no relevant past medical and surgical history. Patients were instructed to drink 1Litre of water over a period of 5-10minutes after 8 hours of overnight fasting and the IOP was checked before drinking water and every 15minutes for 1 hour period followed by 2 hours after drinking water using schiotz tonometer.The difference in baseline IOP and IOP at 1 hour and 2 hour was evaluated among different age groups . RESULT: 100 patients from the age groups 20-50 years were studied .The mean baseline IOP was in the range of 12.4mmHg and the mean IOP after 1 hour was 15.3mmHg.A difference of 4-4.5 mmHg were noted in the age group of 40- 50 years .The IOP was gradually decreasing to 12.78mmHg over a period of 2 hours after WDT. CONCLUSION: The higher age group the more the rise in the IOP after WDT which concludes that as the age increases drinking litres of water over a few minutes will substantially increase the IOP,which might damage the optic nerve.