Echographic differentiation of malignant intraocular tumors

Abstract

Although malignant uveal melanoma and metastasis belongs to he infrequent cancer diseases (only 0.2 percents of all human cancers), they are the most frequent malignant eye tumors and with at least one third of the patients dying from the tumor, represents one of the most lethal diseases seen in the ophthalmological practice. The aim of the study was to determine tipical acustic parameters for the intraocular melanoma and metastasis, and to assess the differentiation of morfologicaly different types of intraocular tumors by means of acoustic parameters of echograms. We investigated 56 patients with malignant intraocular tumors who took medical advise in the Eye clinic of Kaunas Medical University Hospital. We made such conclusions: 1) small tumors, polygonalshaped surface posterior localisatrion, high reflectivity and negative symptom of choroidal excavation are characteristic for metastatic cases; 2) medium and high tumors, mushroom or domeshaped surface, medium or low reflectivity on A mode and positive symptom of choroidal excavation are characteristic for primary malignant melanomas; 3)A/B ultrasound investigation enables to diagnose cell morphology of malignant intraocular tumors prospectively.