Ocular tension and axial length of the eyeball in open-angle glaucoma and low tension glaucoma.

Abstract

Ocular tension is influenced by eyeball size in normal eyes. Abdalla and Hamdi (1970) found a higher ocular tension in subjects with myopic eyes than in those with emmetropic eyes in most age groups, and Tomlinson and Phillips (I970) found a higher ocular tension in normal subjects with high axial length of eyeball and myopia than in those with small axial length and hypermetropia. These findings were supported by the results of a study of ocular tension in anisometropic children (Tomlinson and Phillips, I972) though these results are not supported by Bengtsson (I972). The high cup-to-disc ratio with which a high axial length of eyeball is associated (Tomlinson and Phillips, I969) as well as high ocular tension (Tomlinson and Phillips, I970) may explain the unduly high prevalence of myopic eyes in both open-angle glaucoma (Weekers, Lavergne, and Prijot, I958; Perkins and Jay, I960) and low tension glaucoma (Perkins, I959).