Starting to have some vision problems with tx

Finishing up week 15 post INC and noticing a vision blur, or disturbance in my right eye.   Its like a fuzzy spot when I look a certain way out of my eyes.     I've had vision problems the whole time, but mostly because of dry eyes and just focus changing.    Probably need a new script.        However the fuzzy thing is weird.  Anyone else having any problems.

[Bill1954]

Ophthalmologic disorders

Decrease or loss of vision, retinopathy including macular edema, retinal artery or vein thrombosis, retinal hemorrhages and cotton wool spots, optic neuritis, and papilledema may be induced or aggravated by treatment with peg-intron alpha 2b or other alpha interferons. All patients should receive an eye examination at baseline. Patients with preexisting disorders (e.g. diabetic or hypertensive retinopathy) should receive periodic ophthalmologic exams during interferon alpha treatment. Any patient who develops ocular symptoms should receive a prompt and complete eye examination. Pegintron alpha 2b should be discontinued in patients who develop new or worsening ophthalmologic disorders.  

www.spfiles.com/pipeg-intron.pdf

[hrsepwrguy]

http://hcvets.com/data/hcv_liver/eyes.htm

Cotton-wool spots were found in 31 patients and retinal hemorrhage in nine patients during treatment (24% of patients). These lesions remained asymptomatic and disappeared in all patients. A previous history of arterial hypertension (RR 4.60, 95% CI 1.95-10.85), age above 45 years (RR 2.80, 95% CI 1.36-5.85), and use of pegylated alpha-interferon (RR 2.75, 95% CI 1.41-5.38) were significantly associated with retinopathy. Neurovisual impairment was present in 31 patients (20%) before treatment and in 74 patients (47%) during treatment.

In studies including a significant number of diabetic patients [5,7] diabetes mellitus has also been associated with retinopathy. Furthermore, improvement of retinopathy is delayed in hypertensive and diabetic patients after ending treatment [7]. This relationship emphasizes that IFN-induced retinopathy can result from physiopathological mechanisms in common with other retinopathies related to microvascular abnormalities.

Conclusions: In conclusion, this study showed that signs of retinopathy and neurovisual impairment were common in patients receiving alpha-interferon therapy but were rarely symptomatic. It suggests that alpha-interferon may usually be continued in asymptomatic patients as long as there is careful fundoscopic examination.

Hey Carrie you should really get this checked out, sorry to hear you are having problems but you are almost there, hang in there young lady.

Keith

[candyce1953]

Am worried bout this as I have retina issues, seeing Otho md b 4 I start tx, but I will be taking Vic, ribo, and pegasus
Is one interferon better than another in terms of not having eye ES?
Thank you

[hrsepwrguy]

Eye problems are caused by interferon doesn't matter which one, best to have a complete eye exam before tx and check up exams along the way, use a retina specialist and discuss future tx and what they feel would be a good plan to monitor you.

[ceecee444]

I have had the same issues mine started back in August of 2010.
I was driving to work and all of a sudden my vision went blurred talk about scaring the hell out of you when driving.  I have been to several specialist and no one can pin point the reasons. I keep saying it was due to the Interferon at the time. I still has issues and can't sit and read for a long period of time my eyes start to hurt. I am going to another eye specialist that come into my State once a month in January 2012 and hopefully there will be something he can do otherwise I fear my eyes will stay with this blurred vision this way for the rest of my life so I know what your feeling there. I will report on what his says after my visit in January. Still dealing with it and hopefully this guys can help.

[working dog]

isn't this an oxygen problem...caused buy the interferon?? little veins in the eye not getting enough oxygen.....then breaking.....i had my eyes looked into before tx..they were fine...now lots of cotton wool spots...but 4 + weeks out of tx they were a little better...i saw them in pictures...next appt. in 3 months....anyway...i would get an exam asap....billy

[aj7538]

I started seeing little black dots in my right eye. I guess floaters? Went to eye dr yesterday and said it looked like the blood vessels were leaking not serious everything looks ok, but he is sending me to a retina specialist tues. He does not think it has anything to do with tx, but I find that hard to believe as I have hadno prior issues. Is this common?

[Cheesegrater]

I developed cotton wool spots on interferon and peg-interferon.
It was worst on the consesus interferon (I was higher dose) and I had to stop treatment.
The best way I could describe cotton wool spots (retinopathy) is it is like the effect you get after looking at the sun for a short period, or a strong camera flash. You are left with an area that does not give any image. You notice because of the LACK of vision in that area, not that it is dark, but rather that there is a lack of any detail or image in that region of your vision.
I could increase my awareness of the spots (I had 2 or 3 in one eye and one in the other) when I closed one eye and blinked the other while looking up at a bright, uniform sky, or a uniformly illuminated monochrome wall or such. The spots really jumped out when I did this (Blinking).

The second time I got cotton wool I did not stop therapy because it was on the outside of my central field of view, and it was not getting any worse so I did not tell the doc. ( a risky move).

The cotton wool spots slowly disappeared over the months after treatment ended. My vision is fine now.

[Interfurgen]

I was having eyes going bad, on tx I found some imfo  at pubmed.gov retina / retinopthyand interferon.

[streamline569]

To bad they don't have an eye drop to stop eyes from hurting. Very annoying