A UK study has linked the inhaling of legal 'poppers' or alkyl nitrites to the risk of maculopathy and ophthalmologists hope the report will discourage their use.
The study by ophthalmol-ogists across England and Wales and published in Eye, was described as the first of its kind in the UK to make the link between the sniffing of alkyl nitrites with sight impairment.
Lead author Dr Andrew Davies, working with colleagues at Royal Bolton Hospital, began researching the link when a patient admitted to taking the drug. Sale for human consumption is illegal in the UK but it is legal to sell them as deoderisers.
Dr Davies said: 'There is a large number of people who use poppers, both in the UK and across the world and we suspect that the number of people with this problem is under-reported.'
Some users have permanent sight loss from only one dose and others have found their sight returns to normal on stopping use.
The main ingredient in poppers was changed from isobutyl nitrite to isopropyl nitrite and this is thought to be the reason they have begun to affect eyesight.
? French doctors also reported (Reuters October 13) that the vapours of poppers could seriously damage the light-sensing cells lining the retina.
In a report in the New England Journal of Medicine they examined four users who lost part of their vision after taking the drug and said more cases were found. Dr Michel Pacques of Quinze-Vingts Hospital in Paris said they believed they had enough evidence to inform the public about the ocular toxicity of poppers and added that the toxicity was believed to be related to the molecule itself and not a manufacturing problem.
