Abstract

Photostress recovery time was measured in 30 eyes from 15 patients with chronic open angle glaucoma, and 30 eyes from 15 individuals of a similar age group with no ophthalmological disorder. The average recovery time in patients with glaucoma was 70.47 (SD 35.39) seconds. The average recovery time in the control population was 41.97 (SD 17.34) seconds. This difference was statistically significant (p less than 0.001). There was a small positive correlation between age and recovery time in the control population, whereas there was no correlation between age and recovery time in the glaucoma group. There was no correlation between visual acuity and recovery time for either group. There was also no correlation between intraocular pressure and recovery time for the glaucoma group. It was not possible to control for pupillary dilatation in this study. However, it has been previously demonstrated that pharmacological meiosis will not delay photostress recovery time in normal subjects. This is the first report of photostress recovery testing in patients with chronic open angle glaucoma. The results are discussed in terms of the pathophysiology of glaucoma and previous photostress studies in patients with macular disease.