[Increasing of aqueous flare intensity with aging in normal human eyes]

An attempt was made to evaluate the influence of aging on aqueous flare intensity by measuring 203 normal human eyes. Subjects were divided into six age groups from twenty years to seventy nine years old, and the values for aqueous flare intensity were then determined by a flare-cell meter. Flare values were higher in the older age groups and correlated well with age (linear correlation coefficient r = 0.506, Spearman r = 0.510, p = 0.000). Subjects in their fifties, sixties and seventies showed statistically significant differences to those in their twenties (p less than 0.01). A preliminary in vitro experiment was performed to convert the flare-cell meter reading (photon count/msec) into bovine albumin concentration (mg/dl), which is necessary to compare measurements of different flare-cell meters. The three flare-cell meters employed in this study all showed good linear relationships between photon count and albumin concentration (r = 0.99-1.00), giving converting equations of Y = -0.72 + 0.969 X, Y = -0.68 + 0.958 X, Y = -0.84 + 1.017 X less than Y = log (photon count), X = log (albumin concentration) greater than, respectively. In this report, flare values are expressed in albumin concentrations for each age group, which will then serve as control values in future studies.