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Danger of uncommon situation that causes blindness could also be elevated for individuals with diabetes or weight problems who take Ozempic or Wegovy, examine suggests.
CNN
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Individuals who take Ozempic or Wegovy might have the next danger of creating a uncommon type of blindness, a brand new examine suggests. Nonetheless, docs say it shouldn’t deter sufferers from utilizing the medicines to deal with diabetes or weight problems.
Final summer time, docs at Mass Eye and Ear seen an unusually excessive variety of sufferers with non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, or NAION, a kind of eye stroke that causes sudden, painless imaginative and prescient loss in a single eye.
The situation is comparatively uncommon — as much as 10 out of 100,000 individuals within the basic inhabitants might expertise it — however the docs famous three circumstances in a single week, and every of these sufferers was taking semaglutide drugs.
A glance again at six years of medical information confirmed that folks with diabetes have been greater than 4 instances extra more likely to be recognized NAION in the event that they have been taking a prescription semaglutide, and those that have been chubby or overweight have been greater than seven instances extra more likely to expertise the situation in the event that they have been taking the treatment. The chance was discovered to be biggest inside the first yr of receiving a prescription for semaglutide.
The examine, revealed Wednesday within the medical journal JAMA Ophthalmology, can not show that semaglutide drugs trigger NAION. And the small variety of sufferers — a median of about 100 circumstances have been recognized every year — from one specialised medical middle might not apply to a broader inhabitants.
Novo Nordisk, the producer of the one semaglutide drugs within the US, emphasised that the info within the new examine isn’t adequate to ascertain a causal affiliation between the usage of semaglutide drugs and NAION.
“Affected person security is a prime precedence for Novo Nordisk, and we take all stories about hostile occasions from the usage of our medicines very critically,” an organization spokesperson wrote in an electronic mail to CNN.
Semaglutide prescriptions have soared within the US, which might elevate the variety of individuals in danger for a possible aspect impact. And NAION is the second-leading explanation for optic nerve blindness after glaucoma.
However even with an elevated danger, the situation stays comparatively unusual.
“The usage of these medicine has exploded all through industrialized nations they usually have supplied very vital advantages in some ways, however future discussions between a affected person and their doctor ought to embrace NAION as a possible danger,” lead researcher Dr. Joseph Rizzo, director of the neuro-ophthalmology at Mass Eye and Ear and a professor at Harvard Medical Faculty, mentioned in a information launch. “Our findings needs to be seen as being vital however tentative, as future research are wanted to look at these questions in a a lot bigger and extra various inhabitants.”
Specialists agree that the potential danger of NAION mustn’t deter the usage of semaglutide drugs to deal with diabetes or weight problems.
“Within the ever-changing panorama of systemic therapies, being vigilant for potential new illness associations is an obligation all of us share on behalf of sufferers,” Susan Mollan, an ophthalmologist with the College Hospitals Birmingham within the UK wrote in a associated commentary. However the giant variety of people who find themselves taking semaglutide ought to elevate confidence that absolutely the danger of creating NAION because of this is uncommon.
The ways in which semaglutides work together with the eyes usually are not fully understood. And the precise explanation for NAION isn’t identified both. The situation causes injury to the optic nerve, however there may be usually no warning earlier than imaginative and prescient loss.
Adjustments in blood sugar ranges can have an effect on the form of a watch’s lens and should have an effect on imaginative and prescient, mentioned Dr. Disha Narang, an endocrinologist and director of weight problems medication at Endeavor Well being in Chicago. She was not concerned within the new examine.
And the usage of semaglutides, which immediate the physique to create extra insulin to cut back blood sugar, has been beforehand linked to momentary imaginative and prescient adjustments — new or worsening circumstances of diabetic retinopathy, or injury to blood vessels behind the attention — possible associated to the fast enchancment of blood sugars. The labels for each Ozempic and Wegovy embrace imaginative and prescient adjustments amongst potential unwanted effects, and Novo Nordisk is exploring the hyperlink between semaglutide use and diabetic retinopathy in a trial which they anticipate to finish 2027.
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Whereas there’s a “biologically believable mechanism” for a possible interplay, “‘affiliation isn’t causation’ and diabetes mellitus is a identified danger issue for NAION,” Dr. Andrew Lee, scientific spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology and neuro-ophthalmologist at Houston Methodist Hospital, instructed CNN in an electronic mail. He was not concerned within the new examine.
For now, sufferers who’re taking semaglutide or contemplating therapy ought to focus on the dangers and advantages with their docs, particularly those that produce other identified optic nerve issues corresponding to glaucoma or preexisting visible loss, specialists say
“You will need to seek the advice of with ophthalmology if sufferers expertise visible adjustments,” Narang mentioned. “You will need to make sure that sufferers are consulting with physicians who’re additionally snug prescribing semaglutide and speaking by what could also be clinically related versus irrelevant, and discussing advantages versus dangers of long-term remedy.”