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Badly worsening of the eyes/astigmatism

Question
Dear experts,
I am 33 years old and suffering from CF and from astigmatism of the eyes. There is a very strong worsening of my visual function from -3.50 to -7.50 for the right eye and to -6.50 for the left eye and without a visual aid I have only a visual function of 50% left.
I am now very afraid of developing a diabetes.
Does it make sense to have a normal blood cell count done or is it better now after a year to do the longtime test where one has to drink glucose before the test?
I have read that a drug with the chemical agent Quetiapin, can worsen the situation and one can get a cirrhosis of the liver and a diabetes can become worse.
Answer
Hello,
a major part of adult CF-patients (about 15%) develope a diabetes mellitus, which can in the long run result in changes of the background of the eye and therefore result in a decreased visual function. Therefore it is recommended for CF patients to do the oral glucose tolerance test once a year in order to check if there is a diabetes mellitus or a reduced glucose tolerance. A "normal blood cell count" is not sufficient in that case!

You are asking about special side effects of the drug with the chemical agent Quetiapin, which is a drug for the treatment of schizophrenia. In the pharmacological information of the side effects of this drug, the induction of a diabetes mellitus or the worsening of a preexisting diabetes mellitus is mentioned as a "very rare" side effect. Regarding the so-called hepato-biliary disorders (liver and bile), the jaundice is mentioned as a "rare" and the hepatitis as a "very rare" side effect. Concerning the frequency of the side effects the following categories are taken as a basis: very often (1/10), often (1/100 to 1/10), occasionally (1/1000 - 1/100), rare (1/10000 to 1/1000), very rare (1/10000), not known (frequency based on the available data cannot be estimated).

Yours sincerely,
Dr. C. Smaczny
20.11.2008