[Weather influences on intraocular pressure in patients with chronic glaucoma or ocular hypertension]

From January 1979 to August 1984 intraocular pressure (IOP) was measured on the first Friday of each month under comparable conditions (same instruments, nearly always the same examiner) in a total of 109 patients in whom a primary chronic open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension had been diagnosed: The IOP was correlated to the local weather parameters (atmospheric pressure, cloud cover, relative air humidity, mean, maximum and minimum temperature, precipitation, duration of sunshine, mean and maximum wind velocity). In the large number of measurements a significant correlation was found only between IOP and atmospheric pressure: IOP was lower when air pressure was high. There was only a suggestion of a significant correlation between IOP and relative air humidity. However, further statistical analysis revealed that in fact both atmospheric pressure and relative air humidity account for only a negligible part of the variation in IOP values. From a practical point of view, therefore, the IOP of patients with primary chronic open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension is not influenced by weather conditions.