Link between red dose and visual defects

[Jocelyn344]

I have been advised by the retinal screening service that I have early evidence of damage to the retina consistent with my type 2 diabetes, which has been exacerbated by the prednisolone, and up until now controlled by diet (Bloods normal). I have been experiencing visual defects, like a migraine, but with out the pain, now I am on11.0mg red per day. Could these changes in the retina be due to GCA?

[SnazzyD]

Hello. I just googled steroid related retinal detachment and plenty of recent links came up about retinal damage due to steroids. I don’t know if there is any difference that they can see between a problem caused by steroids or diabetes; it might be worth asking. Does this retinal assessment involve a full eye exam? The reason I ask is because it is possible the sight anomalies could be early GCA so a full and thorough eye exam would be prudent if it didn’t. Sounds like more questions need to be asked but someone else here might have more expert opinion. What’s the follow-up plan?

Here’s just one of the links I found

gov.uk/drug-safety-update/c...

[Jocelyn344 in reply to SnazzyD]

Thank you, will contact GP about this

[PMRpro Ambassador]

I don't know what standard of science reading you have - but this may be helpful:

academic.oup.com/rheumatolo...

where they say "... branch retinal artery occlusions are rare, given the general understanding that they are not primarily involved in the inflammatory process because they lack the internal elastic lamina" but central retinal occlusion can occur" and there is a short section on that.

But I suspect only experienced eye specialists can answer your question.

[Jocelyn344 in reply to PMRpro]

Thank you very much for such a good article. Dusted off my physiology (have PhD) and found the article very comprehensive. Have emailed my GP about my symptoms, and await a discusssion.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Jocelyn344]

You are ahead of me then! The physiology German post-doc Doctorate belongs to OH in this house - I'm merely a graduate! It was funny though because most of his knowledge of terms was in German - when he was doing anything in English he had to ask me