[In Press] Changes in intraocular pressure and central corneal thickness during pregnancy: a systematic review and Meta-analysis

AIM: To conduct a Meta-analysis for investigating the variations in intraocular pressure (IOP) and central corneal thickness (CCT) during normal pregnancy. METHODS: We searched for clinical trials published up to November 2015 without language or region restrictions in PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Ovid, EBSCO, Elsevier, the Chinese Biomedicine Database, WanFang, CNKI, CQVIP and Google Scholar. Studies of the ocular changes observed in pregnant women were selected. The main outcomes were assessed by changes in IOP and CCT. RESULTS: Fifteen studies were included. In subgroup analyses, IOP was significantly decreased during the second (MD=-1.53, 95% CI -2.19, -0.87]; P<0.00001) and third (MD=-2.91, 95% CI -3.74, -2.08]; P<0.00001) trimesters of pregnancy. CCT was increased during the second (MD=10.12, 95% CI 2.01, 18.22]; P=0.01) trimester of pregnancy; moreover, during the third trimester of pregnancy, the CCT displayed an increasing trend, but the difference was not significant (MD=5.98, 95% CI -1.11, 13.07]; P=0.1). CONCLUSION: A decrease in IOP was accompanied by an increase in CCT in the second and third trimesters of a normal pregnancy in women.