The change in intraocular pressure after pupillary dilation in eyes with pseudoexfoliation glaucoma, primary open angle glaucoma, and eyes of normal subjects.

To evaluate the change in intraocular pressure (IOP) after pharmacologic dilation in eyes with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG), pseudoexfoliation glaucoma (PXG), and eyes of normal subjects. This cross-sectional study was conducted in a university hospital-based setting. Patients with PXG, POAG, and normal subjects were consecutively selected and included in the study. Of the 125 eyes of 125 subjects; 46 (25 female) had PXG, 42 (29 female) had POAG, and 37 (20 female) belonged to the control group. Pharmacologic dilation procedure consisted of instillation of topical phenylephrine HCL 10 % followed 5 min by tropicamide 1 %. Studied variables were pre- and post-dilation IOP and also baseline measurements of anterior chamber angle, central corneal thickness, and pupillary diameter by Pentacam HR (Oculus, Wetzlar, Germany). Clinically significant IOP change was defined as a change of ≥2 mmHg from baseline. Randomly selected single eye of each patient was included in the analysis. The mean pre:post-dilation IOP of eyes with PXG and POAG was 17.39 ± 3.89:17.54 ± 3.98 and 15.92 ± 2.37:16.07 ± 2.89 mmHg, respectively. The difference between the pre- and post-dilation IOP of eyes with PXG and POAG was not statistically significant. The eyes of control subjects, however, had a statistically significant reduction of IOP from 14.24 ± 2.88 to 13.54 ± 2.94 mmHg (P = 0.005). 28.3 % (13/46) of eyes with PXG, 16.7 % (7/42) of eyes with POAG, and 2.7 % (1/37) of control eyes showed a clinically significant IOP elevation from baseline after the dilation. In this study, glaucoma patients proportionally experienced a higher rate of clinically significant IOP elevation after pupillary dilation, when compared to normal subjects.