GUEST AUTHOR
DR GALINA DIMITROVA
CITY GENERAL HOSPITAL
"8th SEPTEMBER"
SKOPJE
REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA
EFFECT OF INFRA-RED LIGHT ON INTRAOCULAR PRESSURE
The
therapeutic effect of infra-red light (IRL) to the human body has been attributed to
both its heating and biomodulating properties. Temperature was reported to
affect intra-ocular pressure (IOP). Increased body temperature decreased IOP.
And in summer, mean IOP was lower than during winter season.
In
this original, controlled and masked within-participant pilot study we aim to
study the effect of IRL on IOP.
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subjects were equally divided into 2 groups. Group A (n=17) was subjected to
IRL while Group B (n=17) was not subjected to IRL. The IRL radiation involved
15 minutes of continuous effect of a 150 W IRL bulb from a distance of 40 cm.
Immediately, following the exposure the patients had their IOP checked again.
In
Group A, IOP from the second measurement (mean 15.27 mmHg; SD 1.87 mmHg) was
significantly decreased than the first measurement (mean 16.67 mmHg; SD 2.38
mmHg; p=0.03). In Group B, IOP from the second measurement (mean 15.21 mmHg; SD
3.26 mmHg) was not significantly different than the IOP from the first
measurement (mean 15.71 mmHg; SD 2.42 mmHg; p= 0.46).
The
results from this study suggest that after exposition to 15 minutes of IRL
radiation the IOP decreases in healthy subjects. There may be 2 causes for such
an outcome: heating effect of IRL and/or photomodulatory effect of IRL.
The
decrease in IOP May have been caused by the dissipated heat from the IRL bulb
that may have increased body temperature in the head and shoulder region where
the IRL radiation was applied. The effect may have also been caused by a local
increase in ocular and orbital temperature that may have changed ocular
hemodynamic and/or corneal/sclera stiffness.
In
light of certain limitations of the study, further studies are necessary to
confirm our results and to study the long term effect of IRL to IOP.
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