Clinical Course of Macular Edema in Two Cases of Interferon-Associated Retinopathy Observed by Optical Coherence Tomography

Abstract

During and after IFN therapy, OCT is a useful examination technique for revealing macular edema in patients who have decreased vision. Ophthalmologists should be aware of the ocular side effects of IFN therapy and carefully monitor patients for the possible occurrence of hypoalbuminemia and thrombocytopenia. Jpn J Ophthalmol 2005;49:231-234 (c) Japanese Ophthalmological Society 2005.

Toxicidad ocular de la quimioterapia sistémica anticancerosa

“…34 Interferon is also a known cause of retinopathy. [35][36][37] Interferon associated retinopathy is typically characterized by retinal haemorrhages and cotton wool spots in the posterior fundus but visual function is usually maintained. 35,36 Macula oedema with reduced visual acuity may however occur.…”

“…[35][36][37] Interferon associated retinopathy is typically characterized by retinal haemorrhages and cotton wool spots in the posterior fundus but visual function is usually maintained. 35,36 Macula oedema with reduced visual acuity may however occur. 35 Interferon-induced ischaemic retinopathy can occur in asymptomatic cancer patients.…”

“…35,36 Macula oedema with reduced visual acuity may however occur. 35 Interferon-induced ischaemic retinopathy can occur in asymptomatic cancer patients. 37 These retinal changes are usually reversible with discontinuation of therapy.…”

A prospective study of change in visual function in patients treated with pegylated interferon alpha for hepatitis C in the UK

“…Despite these changes, patients rarely report subjective problems and visual function is maintained. Anterior ischaemic optic neuropathy8 and macular oedema9 have also been described as complications of interferon treatment. Ophthalmic assessment at baseline and subsequent follow-up has, to date, been advocated for such patients 2 10…”

Ophthalmologic complications of antiviral therapy in hepatitis C treatment

“…The most common of these are retinal vein occlusion (RVO) [21,29,30,32,[49][50][51][52][53][54][55] , and non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) [28,49,[56][57][58][59] . Other atypical adverse events that have been reported include ocular myasthenia [60,61] , optic neuritis [62] , Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease [49,[63][64][65][66][67] , ocular sarcoidosis [68,69] , ocular toxocariasis [70] , neurovascular glaucoma [71] , conjunctival hemorrhage [20,26,35] , macular edema [72][73][74] , oculomotor nerve palsy [75] , trichomegaly [23] and retinal detachment [76] .…”