Cyanopsia - Blue Vision

 

Cyanopsia or Blue Vision

During this summer, I had a patient who complained about 'blue vision' when the temperature was very high that lasted anywhere from 15 minutes to a good part of the day.  Though not typical, this is a condition that can occur with erectile dysfunction medicines.  This patient was not on these medicines or any new medicine but upon researching this condition, I came up with information that follows.

This condition in which a person's full field of vision appears blue can be due to erectile dysfunction medicines.  This occurs due to this chemical effects of Viagra.  The ocular side effects can occue in about 3 percent of the men taking 25-50mg dose and nearly all men taking 600-800mg dose.  It occurs due to inhibiting PDE-5 (phosphodiesterase), an enzyme that enhances the effects of nitric oxide facilitating blood inflow.  It has a milder inhibiting effect on PDE-6, an enzyme actively present in retinal photoreceptors which causes cyclicGMP to increase which results in a depolarization of the rod cell thereby increasing light sensitivity and the resulting blue vision.

This usually has a peak about 1-2 hours after the drug is taken and not thought currently to have any long term retinal changes.  Even though this is the case, Viagra's lebel warns patients with existing Macular Degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa becauses they were not studied in past clinical trials.

(parts taken from a Vision Web article)


View Wikipedia article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CyanopsiaCheck out Livestrong for other drug impacts on your color vison:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/206044-medications-that-affect-color-vision/

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