Clinical Survey of Interferon Retinopathy.

Kim, Jun Hyung; Koo, Han Mo; Chung, Sang Moon

Original Article

Journal of the Korean Ophthalmological Society 1996;37(2):293-299.
Published online February 1, 1996.

Clinical Survey of Interferon Retinopathy.

Jun Hyung Kim, Han Mo Koo, Sang Moon Chung

Department of Ophthalmology, Catholic University, Medical College, Seoul, Korea.

인터페론 망막증의 임상적 고찰

김준형(J H Kim),구한모(H M Koo),정상문(S M Chung)

Abstract

We studied the retinal complication of systemic alpha-interferon in 52 patients who had chronic myelogenous leukemia of chronic phase. 32 patients of them were systemically injected with alpha-interferon for 6 months or more, and 20 patients who were not injected were used as a control. In the injected group, 10 of the 32 patients(31%) showed retinopathies such as yellowish white subretinal deposits, multiple blot shaped hemorrhages, and cotton wool spots. However in the control group, there was only one patient who showed blot shaped hemorrhage. The injected group had significantly much higher chance to have retinopathy than the control group(p<0.05). Majority of the retinal findings were yellowish white subretinal deposits rather than retinal hemorrhage or cotton wool spots. The possibility of interferon related retinopathy increased in older patients and in the patients with longer use of systemic alpha-interferon (p>0.05). The sex and hematologic factor did not affect the development of retinopathy(p<0.05). Since the patients under long term treatment of systemic alpha-interferon are at higher risk of retinopathy, their fundus should be examined periodically.

Key Words: Age;Hematologic factor;Interferon retinopathy;Sex;Treatment