Can Blindness be caused by using Aldara (Imiquimod) with GCA?

[LIVEORDIEHEREIAM]

My dermatologist is once again pushing Aldara (in the US, it's called Imiquimod) to help control my pre-cancerous skin "spots" (Actinic Keratosis) on my head. I have GCA, and I'm concerned because this med induces your immune system to go into overdrive against the spots, killing them, which leads to a scar in each spot's place. The overdrive part is my concern. I fear that this could lead to a major GCA flair. Has anyone here with GCA used Aldara?

[Downtime]

I was given Aldara by my dermatologist for a problem area on my forehead which constantly became painful and weepy . It would heal but always come back. It was sun damage. I was supposed to use it over three weeks but after one application my head became a bloody mess. I have to say it was painful and I couldn’t keep using it. However it was very successful and totally got rid of the problem and now I have flawless baby smooth new skin ! There were side effects as even using this tiny amount did make me feel slightly unwell. Maybe it was my imagination. They said the heightened effects were due to my immune system already being in overdrive with RA which actually caused it to have a quicker reaction. I don’t have GCA but there was no flare up of my RA .

[PMRpro Ambassador]

I can't really see that it would have a great systemic effect - it is a topical treatment and care is required to only apply it to the affected skin.

I suspect the effect of the imiquimod might be increased by the a/i disorder underlying the GCA but not the other way round but I don't know. It increases the production of a cytokine called interferon - not the cytokine involved in GCA which is IL-6.

[LIVEORDIEHEREIAM in reply to PMRpro]

Thanks PMRPro! I knew you would have the right info! Based on this, I will go ahead and use it.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to LIVEORDIEHEREIAM]

If you were to have any symptoms then stop and speak to a doctor but I don't think anything would happen suddenly.