SUMMARY
The flare variation was studied before and 2 hours after the instillation of 1 drop of 0.5% timolol, 2% pilocarpine or 0.5% betaxolol in 26 normal volunteers by laser flare photometry. Pilocarpine and timolol increased the flare measurements in the average of 143.7% and 81.6% above the baseline readings respectively for the first group studied (6 patients, 12 eyes). The difference was statiscally significant (P<0.05).
Timolol increased the flare in 78.2% and betaxolol increased it in 33.2% above the baseline, in average, for the second group studied (20 subjects, 40 eyes).
Betaxolol induced a significant smaller increase of the flare measurements when compared to timolol and pilocarpine (P<0,01).