Evaluation of a self tonometer for home use.

It has been repeatedly stated that home monitoring of the intraocular pressure of glaucomatous patients could be of clinical significance. However, home tonometry has not been implemented due to the lack of an appropriate instrument. We present herein an upgraded version of a home tonometer that can be used by the patient alone. When it was tested on 37 eyes of 22 glaucomatous patients, the reproducibility was 1.7 mm Hg at IOPs of 20 mm Hg. The IOP was also measured with a Goldmann applanation tonometer. The two measurements were well correlated (r = .89) and the accuracy of the home tonometer, namely the variation of the data from the regression curve, was 2.5 mm Hg. This accuracy is compared with that of conventional tonometers. Moreover, the study showed that the home tonometer yielded reliable results in the hands of a substantial portion of the potential population.