At 3.5 mg Pred, tapering from 60 mg for GCA - I now have iritis in right eye.Please narrate how you went up on pred - dosage and tapers.

[Iwillwin123]

I am shocked that I have iritis. I have only a mild blurring in right eye . But the doctor now says -go back up to 40 and drop 10 mg every week . Any narratives , opinions desperately needed. TIA

[alvertta]

I went up to 50 Dropping slowly. After 2 months at 42.5.

[pinks33]

So sorry to hear your diagnosis. I don't know much about iritis except that it's a type of uveitis. It's good that you got treated so soon. Hopefully others will pitch in with their knowledge/experience of the condition. Did the eye doc say it was linked to GCA in some way?

[Iwillwin123 in reply to pinks33]

Yes iritis - eye inflammation is connected to GCA .

[PMRpro Ambassador]

As pinks33 has said, it is a form of uveitis but I don't think it is particulalry associated with GCA, except very rarely and there are other causes, including reactive arthritis and the spondyloarthropathies where there is a genetic link.

hindawi.com/journals/crim/2...

says "GCA with uveitis has been rarely noted"

mayoclinic.org/diseases-con...

You need to listen to the doctor - this is a different matter from GCA/PMR with regard to tapering. The only person I know of on the forum with a history of uveitis is Hidden - who I think can be classed as a real expert there - he has had it for many years. So if he doesn't see this post - send him a private message.

However - being on the recommended short course of high dose pred for uveitis is no different whether you are already on pred or not. Being on pred just raises the baseline: you will take the course, reducing 10mg per week as instructed until you are back to 3.5mg instead of zero at the end, i.e. 40/30/20/10/3.5. You may need a bit more than 3.5mg to start with, maybe 5mg, because your adrenal function MIGHT be thrown a bit after 4 weeks above 10mg but equally, it may be fine, it is a borderline duration.

[Iwillwin123 in reply to PMRpro]

Your detailed reply is extremely helpful . What has reassured me is that it should not interferes with my taper of pred too much .

Dad Cue has very kindly replied to me too and again valuable information there too .

Thankyou very much !

[Iwillwin123]

This is just perfect feedback for me.

It has reassured me a lot since you HAVE gone though this often - since it is a rare condition - there are not too many narratives about this . but thank God , I now know you have dealt with it successfully . Incidentally I also have Polycythemia Vera - so now I am beginning to wonder if it is connected with PV and not GCA .