Effects of physical activity on pupil cycle time (PCT) in healthy Indian male

Globally, physical inactivity is an important risk factor for the development of non-communicable disease consisting of coronary artery disease, as well as, other diseases including hypertension, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, and certain types of cancers. Parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity in the eye is determined by the pupil cycle time (PCT) can be comparable with cardiac parasympathetic response and thereby determine the morbidity and mortality among individuals. The PCT is measured by throwing white light on the edge of the pupil. Pupil cycling is a feature of pupillary reflex arc. The aim of this study is to establish the effect of physical activity on the PCT. The counting of PCT was done for 90 cycles and average one count is considered a single PCT. The physical activity level (PAL) was determined by administering a physical activity level questionnaire developed in the Division of Nutrition, St. John's Medical College, Bangalore. The PAL is classified as < 1.4 as sedentary, 1.55 to 1.75 moderately active, and > 1.75 heavily active. Thirty healthy male volunteers in the age group of 18-50 years and with BMI of 18.5 kg/m2-30 kg/m2 were studied. We obtained PCT of 962.00 ± 105.72 msec in sedentary, 896.77 ± 85.88 msec in moderately active and 889.45 ± 68.71 msec in heavily active individuals. Linear regression analysis shows there is statistically significant difference between the three different groups of physical activity level with a b value of 0 and R2 being 0.19. Increase in physical activity led to decrease in the PCT i.e. increase in the parasympathetic tone in the eye. Pupil cycle time (PCT) is a simple noninvasive tool to assess and differentiate the PNS function in different activity level of individual.