Normal Eye Pressure?

Question

If you have normal eye pressure does that mean you can't have gluacoma?

I had my eyes checked and the eye doc blew this air into my eye and said the pressure is normal.

I don't have the symptoms but was just checking.

Answer 1

If you have Glaucoma one of the symptoms is having pressure in the eyes . Although strangely enough some people can have high pressure yet no disease.

Answer 2

Air puff tonometry is not an accurate way to assess eye pressure. An ophthalmologist MD will perform this with a cobalt blue applanation tonometer. It is far more accurate, and even glaucoma specialists use this. You certainly can develop glaucoma with normal eye pressure, and this group of patients is referred to as normal tension glaucoma patients. This group presents with optic nerve pathology, but eye pressure is normal and they require extended work ups sometimes including MRIs (brain scans) to rule out serious disease.

Hope this is helpful.

Adam D Koenigsberg MD

Ophthalmologist

Jacksonville FL

Answer 3

Glaucoma is not defined by eye pressure, you can have glaucoma with normal pressure.  However, if you have healthy and normal optic nerves, it is unlikely that you have glaucoma.

Don't know what you mean by "symptoms",  people with open angle glaucoma have no symptoms.

Contrary to the previous post, air puff tonometry has been shown repeatedly to measure IOP accurately.  If anything, it measures slightly high.

Answer 4

agreed that air puff tonometry is not all that accurate, as another poster indicated above.

however, i have a few additions:

1) air puff almost always read HIGH.  so its still a very effective screening device.  if you have low pressure on the air puff, you probably have EVEN LOWER pressure with applanation tonometry

2) OD's perform "cobalt blue applanation tonometry" (actually called Goldmann applanation tonometry or Perkins applanation tonometry, depending on which instrument is used) as well.  it is not a test that is in any way unique to ophthalmologists nor MD's.

3) most glaucoma specialists consider IOP to be less and less important.  sure, its somewhat related, but its not the sole way to diagnose or manage glaucoma by any stretch.  we're all using laser scanning/imaging devices nowadays as well (GDx, HRT, etc)

4) i agree for most patients most of the time, anything under 22 is pretty "normal".  there are obviously exceptions (as is the case for low tension glaucoma)

Answer 5

it means you are unlikely to develop glaucoma. Normal pressure is 18 to 22. Most think it is an inherited condition.