Clinical comparison of the measurement of the IOP with the ocular blood flow tonometer, the Tonopen XL and the Goldmann applanation tonometer

Purpose: In addition to measuring ocular blood flow, the ocular blood flow tonometer (OBF) can also be set to solely record intraocular pressure (IOP), In this mode it provides a quick means of tonometry which may allow nursing staff to be more easily trained in its use than conventional Goldmann tonometry, With a view to its eventual use in nurse-led clinics we undertook a study to compare both the OBF tonometer and our currently favoured nurse practitioners tonometer the tonopen XL with Goldmann tonometry, Method: IOP was measured in 99 eyes with all three tonometers in a random order. Results: There was not any statistically significant difference between the measurements of all three tonometers, Conclusions: It is concluded that OBF tonometer can provide clinically useful measurements of intraocular pressure which may in fact be more accurate than the tonopen, however, our opinion is that it possibly is not suitable for a universal glaucoma clinics application.