The Short-Term Effects of Exercise on Intraocular Pressure, Choroidal Thickness and Axial Length

Abstract

PurposeTo explore ocular changes in healthy people after exercise.MethodsTwenty five volunteers underwent exercise for 15 minutes on a treadmill. Measurements of choroidal thickness, intraocular pressure (IOP), ocular biometry, and blood pressure were taken before and after exercise. Enhanced Depth Imaging optical coherence tomography (EDI-OCT) was used to measure choroidal thickness at the fovea. Intraocular pressure (IOP) was measured by Goldmann applanation tonometry. Ocular biometric measures were collected using A scan ultrasound. Blood pressure was measured concurrently with the acquisition of the scans.ResultsTwenty five volunteers (25 eyes) with a mean age of 25.44±3.25 years were measured. There was a significant increase in systolic and diastolic pressure after exercise (P<0.05). The IOP showed a significant decrease after exercise (P<0.05). However there was no significant difference in the mean choroidal thickness, ocular axial length, anterior chamber depth, lens thickness, or vitreous length before and after exercise measurements (P>0.05).ConclusionThere was a significant decrease in IOP from exercise without a change in choroidal thickness and ocular biometric measures. IOP and choroidal thickness were not correlated, suggesting that the IOP decrease from exercise is not due to changes in choridal thickness.

Effects of Exercise on the Structure and Circulation of Choroid in Normal Eyes

“…There were no significant changes in the mean CCT before and after the exercise which is consistent with recent reports [2, 13]. Our results added the new information that there were no significant changes in the mean total choroidal area, the mean luminal and stromal areas after the dynamic exercise.…”

“…Many studies have reported that the IOPs were decreased after exercise [1–5, 7, 8]. Hong et al reported that IOPs were significantly decreased after exercise with no correlation with the choroidal thickness [2], which is consistent with our results. The changes in the IOP were not correlated with those of the choroidal structural parameters, suggesting that IOP may be less likely related to the choroidal structural changes after the exercise.…”

“…The results of a recent study using the enhanced-depth imaging optical coherence tomography (EDI-OCT) showed that there was a significant increase in the choroidal thickness after exercise [12], but others did not find any significant changes in the thickness after the exercise [2, 13]. Because the choroid does not have a distinct layer-by-layer architecture, the changes of either the luminal or stromal areas of the choroid after exercise have not been determined.…”

Juxtapapillary choroid is thinner in normal‐tension glaucoma than in healthy eyes

“…However, it is unlikely that the effect of that diurnal variation seriously affected the conclusions of the present study because the maximum likely diurnal variation is only about 10% of the choroidal thickness (Tan et al 2012). However, the maximum likely variations of the choroidal thickness due to these factors have been reported to be <10% of the choroidal thickness (Kim et al 2013a;Hong et al 2014;Altinkaynak et al 2015). IOP = intraocular pressure.…”

Physical exercise and glaucoma: a review on the roles of physical exercise on intraocular pressure control, ocular blood flow regulation, neuroprotection and glaucoma‐related mental health

“…The IOP reduction after 15 min of treadmill running at a speed of 6.5–8 km/h was 3.82 mmHg, with an additional decrease of 1.14 mmHg after 30 min (Hong et al. ). Kozobolis et al.…”