Macular degeneration

[RheaV]

I was diagnosed in July, 2017,though I'm pretty sure that it started a number of months before that. I started on 15 mgof pred, reduced to 10 mg after 2 weeks, amd am now tapering to 4.5 mg. I sometimes wonder if I really have PMR—once I started pred, I have experienced no pain whatsoever. BUt my Macular degeneration has progressed very quickly. I'm 68. Is it possible that the pred could affect the Macular Degeneration?

[SheffieldJane]

It doesn’t sound like PMR does it? I would have been concerned about GCA with your symptom picture. Do be alert for headaches and jaw pain whilst chewing. This isn’t an answer to your question I know, because I haven’t heard of there being a link with this specific kind of eye condition.

[RheaV in reply to SheffieldJane]

I've had no headaches at all. I was just wondering if there was a connnection between pred and MD

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to RheaV]

Hi,

Can’t recall it ever being discussed on this forum, and I’ve been on it for best part of 6 years, so I would hazard a guess there’s no evidence of a connection.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

On this site

brightfocus.org/macular/cha...

they say:

"Steroids are really interesting for the eye. Steroids have such an overall effect on the immune system that for each person, there is a little bit of a variety of an affect that we see. We don’t see any direct effects of prednisone to both wet and dry macular degeneration, but prednisone can cause a different condition that can affect your macula. This is where discussing which medications have been added or changed with your ophthalmologist is really important, because sometimes you don’t even recognize that you might be on a medication that can do something else. There’s a separate condition in the eye that can sometimes look similar to macular degeneration that can be exacerbated with any oral steroid, such as prednisone. Sometimes you don’t even realize you’re on a steroid, as it can come in a form of an inhaler in your asthma treatment or a hydrocortisone cream, as well. For macular degeneration, there is usually not much of a concern for steroids."

But they don't say anywhere what this separate condition is!

[PMRCanada]

I’m interested in this subject matter as I only have vision in one eye to begin with. Seeing optometrist next week who will refer me to opthamologist to get baseline readings and such. I’ve also read about pred causing cateracts, and GCA so I am wanting to ensure I have good eye health on this PMR journey.

Thanks for bringing this forward RheaV.

[SusanEleven]

Vision has always been a concern for me since I watched my mother lose all sight in one eye and most in the other from macular degeneration. And as a photographer, well, vision issues send me into a bit of a panic. So far in eye news during my PMR (2.5 years thus far, holding at 4mg pred since December 2017):

— I’ve got the pred cataracts.

—- My eye pressure was high in my early PMR days on my higher steroid dose but went back to normal as I tapered.

— I had several burst blood vessels, a bleed in the back of my eye, and quite the flashing light show in the vision of my right eye, also in the earlier days of PMR. It was treated as an emergency by my health center and I saw an amazing eye specialist. The flashes were an age-related vitreous detachment (my left eye had done the same years earlier) and not serious. Ditto for the blood vessels and bleed. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a long and detailed exam!

— So far my macular looks healthy but I’m only 62. I was told macular degeneration is from a combination of genetic and environmental factors.