Descriptive epidemiology of intraocular pressure and corneal hysteresis among U.S. veterans.

Purpose: Several reports have revealed a difference in various populations regarding the variability of intraocular pressure (IOP) and corneal hysteresis (CH). This retrospective study was created to determine a profile for U.S. Veterans in a large outpatient clinical setting. OVERVIEW AND METHODOLOGY: The objective was to evaluate a random cohort of patient records in this clinical setting to determine the mean and standard deviation (SD) of the following parameters: Goldmann-correlated IOP (IOPg), CH, waveform score, and central corneal thickness from the Reichert Ocular Response Analyzer.

Results: All patient records were reviewed by Veteran Health Affairs Eye clinical staff which resulted in data collected on 538 eyes. The mean IOP of this cohort for IOPg was 17.39 (SD 10.08). The mean for CH was calculated at 9.61 (SD 3.04) with a waveform score mean of 5.66 (SD 2.18) and central corneal thickness for 207 eyes was a mean of 545.09 (SD 51.09) nm.

Conclusion: From the results, IOPg appears to be significantly higher and CH significantly lower than other populations reported in the literature. This information provides an accurate baseline for the evaluation of the U.S. veteran population for future.