Changes in intraocular pressure during prolonged (7-day) head-down tilt bedrest

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the change in intraocular pressure (IOP) due to postural changes in young healthy volunteers.

Materials and methods: Intraocular pressure was measured using a calibrated Pulsair noncontact tonometer in both eyes of 25 female volunteers in a sitting position and after 1, 3, and 10 minutes in a supine position. In the second part of the experiment (a 7-day -6 degrees head-down tilt [HDT]), IOP (at 8 am, 12 am and 6 pm) and corneal thickness (12 am) were monitored in 8 female volunteers before, during, and after the HDT period. Blood pressure, hematocrit, plasma volume and osmolality, and plasma catecholamines concentrations were also measured.

Results: Intraocular pressure was significantly higher in the supine position (16.1 +/- 3.6 mm Hg) than in the sitting position, with a mean pressure difference of 2.23 +/- 2.9 mm Hg after 1 minute, 0.9 +/- 3 mm Hg after 3 minutes, and 1.9 +/- 3.8 mm Hg after 10 minutes in a supine position (P < 0.001). During the period of HDT, IOP values decreased significantly on the fifth day (13.3 +/- 1.6 mm Hg, P = 0.03) and the seventh day (12.7 +/- 1.7 mm Hg, P = 0.02) when compared with IOP in the supine position (14.26 +/- 2 mm Hg). The corneal thickness increased significantly (P < 0.0001) at day 5 (549.25 +/- 48.7 microm) and day 7 (540.31 +/- 46.9 microm) compared with baseline (532.45 +/- 38.6 microm). Two days after the end of the HDT bedrest, the mean supine IOP significantly increased (14.1 +/- 1.8 mm Hg, P = 0.003) and corneal thickness was similar to that found at baseline. The mean decrease of IOP was positively correlated with that of the plasma volume (-10%, r = 0.61, P = 0.02) and negatively correlated with the mean rise of hematocrit (r = -0.5, P = 0.07), variables that are considered to be indirect measures of plasma dehydration.

Conclusions: During a 7-day HDT bedrest experiment in healthy women, eyes seemed to compensate the moderate rise of IOP described between a sitting and a supine position, and exhibited a slight and progressive average decrease of 1.3 mm Hg. These physiological modifications could be related to an ocular dehydration or to systemic cardiovascular and hormonal variations during bedrest.