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Several reports, have addressed the influence of central corneal thickness (CCT) on intraocular pressure (IOP).1 Although different nomograms have been proposed to 'correct' IOP based on CCT variations, there are other corneal factors that may influence IOP measurements like corneal biomechanics (elasticity and viscoelasticity).2,3
Nonetheless, pachymetry is readily available for clinicians, and knowing if the patient has a thin or a thick cornea may influence the management of glaucoma. Mosaed et al. (145) evaluated the correlation between CCT and 24-hour IOP fluctuation (defined as peak minus trough 24 hour IOP in the habitual body positions) both in untreated glaucoma patients and normal subjects. No difference between average 24-hour IOP, peak IOP or fluctuation was found between patients with glaucoma having thick or thin corneas. The authors have extensive experience in studying IOP variations in different types of patients housed in a sleep laboratory under controlled conditions.4-6 The present study was performed under the same strictly controlled setting. Based on observations in subjects with ocular hypertension,7 as well as patients with pre-perimetric glaucoma8 or advanced glaucomatous damage;9 it was suggested that CCT may be an independent risk factor for glaucoma. The present study indicates that a single measurement of CCT performed during office-hours is not correlated with 24-hour IOP fluctuation, and these two factors may play different roles in the pathophysiology of glaucoma. When analyzing factors that correlate with IOP fluctuation, the reader has to be aware that there are different types of IOP fluctuation; e.g.: 24-hour (subdivided into diurnal and nocturnal), as well as long-term fluctuation (usually defined as SD of the available IOP measurements). Attention to the definition of IOP fluctuation is essential. Also, it is important to note in which position the measurements were made. In the Mosaed et al. paper (as in other papers of the same lab), measurements were made in the habitual body positions, which reproduce a physiologic situation. More on this subject is available in the IOP Consensus book of the WGA.10