Re: Cataracts- Martha

[Guest guest]

Hi Martha;

I had to do some reading on myotonic muscular dystrophy as I knew nothing about this before your post. From what I can tell, using this exhaustive resource:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/dispomim.cgi?id=160900

it would be difficult to ascribe cataracts to myotonic muscular dystrophy unless you had one or more of the other symptoms: myotonia, muscular dystrophy, frontal balding, ECG changes, or low IgG. Did your father or mother have myotonic muscular dystrophy? If not then it would be very unlikely that you would have this susceptibility gene. It's not clear from your post whether your father just had cataracts, or whether he was also diagnosed with myotonic muscular dystrophy?

I think it's a good idea to try to find out what type of cataracts you have. Perhaps if you have a history of taking corticosteroids for your UC, this may have contributed to an increased risk of cataracts? Certainly there does seem to be an increased risk with family history of cataracts and a number of other factors, such as diabetes, exposure to sunlight, and prior steroid therapy:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cataracts/DS00050

http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/cataracts.htm

I've read that the type of cataract in 's disease is often of the "sunflower" type:

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1737031 & blobtype=pdf

Yes, copper accumulation has been noted to be associated with PSC:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4007418

but I havn't come across anything indicating that this results in cataracts in PSC patients, and if so (?) whether the cataracts resemble those seen in 's disease (?)

Sorry this may be of little help ... but please try not to worry! Please give us an update if you learn more about the type of cataract and what your primary doctor thinks may be the cause.

Best regards,

Dave

(father of (23); PSC 07/03; UC 08/03)