Clinical Comparision of the ProTon and the Goldmann Applanation Tonometer

ABSTRACT

The recently developed ProTon tonometer is a small hand-held instrument which has less chances of infectious ocular diseases transmission and corneal abrasion than other types of tonometer. We compared the intraocular pressures taken by the ProTon tonometer with those by the Goldmann applanation tonometer in 290 eyes of 145 patients. The results were as follows 1. The difference of the intraocular pressures between the ProTon tonometer and the Goldmann tonometer is less than 3mmHg in 91.03% of the estimation, and less than ImmHg in 64.83%. 2. The average intraocular pressure measured by the ProTon tonometer is lower than that by the Goldmann applanation tonometer. In the higher intraocular pressure zone, the difference of intraocular pressures between the two is more increased. 3. The correlation between the intraocular pressures measured by the ProTon tonometer and those by the Goldmann tonometer is very high(correlation coefficient 0.98). According to the above results, we conclude that the ProTon tonometer can be used more accurately and conveniently for both patient and examiner than other classic instruments.