Fluorophotometric measurements of aqueous-humor flow in Filipino eyes

Abstract

Objective: This study determined the rate of aqueous-humor flow in Filipino eyes.

Methods: Patients were recruited from the outpatient eye clinic of the Philippine General Hospital. All underwent a complete eye evaluation, gonioscopy, dilated-fundus examination, ultrasonic pachymetry, and fluorophotometry. After instillation of 2% fluorescein dye into the eye, three scans were made on each eye every 30 minutes for 2 hours and the rate of aqueous-humor flow was determined. Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance was used to determine variation of aqueous-humor flow across age groups. Pearson correlation was used to determine association between ocular parameters.

Results: A total of 74 eyes (37 patients) were included in the study. The mean age of the participants was 46.6 years ± 11.1 years. The mean rate of aqueous-humor flow was 2.78 ± 0.27 mL/min and this was not affected by the eye assessed (p = 0.77), sex (p = 0.19), nor age expressed as decades (p = 0 .084). Aqueous-humor flow was directly and fairly correlated with anterior-chamber volume and depth (r = 0.35, p = 0.002 and r = 0.36, p = 0.002) respectively. Aqueous-outflow facility was inversely and fairly correlated with pachymetry (r = –0.32, p = 0.006).

Conclusions: The rates of aqueous-humor flow in Filipino eyes were similar to those reported in the literature. There is direct but fair correlation of the aqueous-humor flow with anterior-chamber depth and volume.