Iris ring melanoma: fine needle biopsy.

AIMS: To delineate the diagnostic accuracy of fine needle biopsy in iris ring melanoma and determine the tumour related mortality of this neoplasm. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 22 patients with iris melanomas that involve the entire 360 degrees of the anterior chamber angle. RESULTS: Iris ring melanomas were correctly diagnosed in all cases. In 11 of 16 cases (69%) a fine needle biopsy performed 180 degrees away from the main mass was positive for an iris ring melanoma. The tumour related mortality in iris ring melanoma cases was four of 22 patients (18%). Actuarial survival analysis showed a 10 year mortality (Kaplan-Meier) of 15%. CONCLUSION: A fine needle aspiration biopsy can be used to diagnose an iris ring melanoma. Iris ring melanomas have significant mortality compared with focal tumours.

Sympathetic ophthalmia complicating helium ion irradiation of a choroidal melanoma.

Sympathetic ophthalmia was diagnosed 49 months after helium ion irradiation of a left choroidal melanoma. The patient maintained good vision until 18 months after therapy, when she developed neovascular glaucoma. This complication required multiple therapeutic procedures, including topical anti-inflammatory and antiglaucomatous drops, 360 degrees peripheral panretinal cryoblation, and a single 180 degrees application of inferior cyclocryotherapy over a 2 1/2-year period. Four weeks after the cyclocryotherapy, inflammation was noted in both eyes, and, one month later, enucleation of the left sympathogenic eye was performed. Serial histopathologic sections showed a full-thickness, fibrovascular, scleral scar and tantalum marker ring suture without uveal incarceration. Penetrating surgical trauma, a uveal melanoma, and multiple nonpenetrating treatments resulted in the development of sympathetic ophthalmia.

Iris melanoma with increased intraocular pressure. Differentiation of focal solitary tumors from diffuse or multiple tumors.

A 70-year-old man presented with an apparent focal iris ciliary body mass and increased intraocular pressure. Fine needle aspiration biopsy 180 degrees from the main lesion demonstrated uveal melanoma cells in the angle. The eye was enucleated, and multiple separate iris and ciliary body melanomas were noted. This case demonstrates the usefulness of fine needle aspiration biopsy for both diagnosis and optimum therapy in selected cases.

Combined nevi of the conjunctiva.

OBJECTIVE: To report the clinical and histologic features of combined nevi of the conjunctiva, a type of nevus that is not uncommon in the skin but rarely has been reported in the conjunctiva. METHODS: Conjunctival nevi and melanomas in the files of the University of California at San Francisco Eye Pathology Laboratory from 1984 to 1999 were reviewed for the presence of features of both standard nevocytic nevi and blue nevi. Clinical histories and, when available, clinical photographs were obtained. RESULTS: Thirty combined nevi were discovered between 1984 and 1999. One case before 1984 had been incorrectly diagnosed as a junctional nevus. The dendritic and spindle-shaped blue nevus cells had been overlooked because they were not recognized as distinct from the standard nevocytic nevus cells. The recognition of blue as well as a brown color, a deep as well as a superficial component in the lesion, or a history of pigmentation since birth may help to establish the correct clinical diagnosis and prevent an unnecessarily deep surgical resection. Although growth of the lesion or "satellites" in some may favor a clinical diagnosis of melanoma, no lesions in this series were malignant. CONCLUSION: Despite a paucity of reports of combined nevi of the conjunctiva in the medical literature, this type of nevus, a combination of a nevocytic and a blue nevus, is common and has been overlooked in the past.

Failure of choroidal melanoma to respond to helium ion therapy.

Helium ion irradiation is a promising alternative therapy for choroidal melanoma. In short-term follow-up (less than 5 years), more than 90% (18/19) of treated patients demonstrated tumor regression. We had to enucleate five eyes after helium ion therapy either because of continued tumor growth (four patients) or other complications (one patient). Two melanomas continued to grow and seemed to be radioresistant. In two other tumors it retrospectively seemed that the entire lesion was not inside the radiation field. In one patient total retinal detachment and glaucoma developed; enucleation was performed because of a painful eye. Metastatic disease developed in no patients. The treatment failures emphasize that there are a number of unresolved issues regarding the use of charged-particle irradiation in the treatment of melanoma. Further studies must be performed to answer these questions and better delineate the use of these newer forms of therapy.

Spontaneous regression of a choroidal melanoma.

Although spontaneous regression of uveal malignant melanoma is rare, its occurrence is not uncommon in cutaneous melanomas. We report a 15-year follow-up of an enlarging posterior pigmented tumor. It initially appeared to spontaneously regress into a flat chorioretinal scar, but, ten years later, it grew markedly and the eye was enucleated. Histopathologic changes similar to those found in regressed cutaneous melanomas were located in the region of the chorioretinal scar.

Metastatic ciliary body carcinoid tumor.

A 50-year-old man with a history of systemic carcinoid had decreased right eye vision and a darkly pigmented cilio-choroidal mass. Results of ultrasonographic and fluorescein angiographic examinations were consistent with a malignant melanoma. Fine-needle aspiration biopsy of the lesion identified it as a carcinoid metastasis. The patient refused both radiation and enucleation; complete excision with a cyclochoroidectomy was performed. Histopathologic examination showed a carcinoid neoplasm covered by marked hyperplasia of the retinal pigment epithelium that produced the pigmented appearance of the lesion.

Iridocyclitis masquerade syndrome.

A 52-year-old man presented with blurred vision and a red, painful eye. There was a marked anterior uveitis associated with a solid white lesion on the iris. The differential diagnosis and appropriate diagnostic workup are discussed. The diagnosis of adenocarcinoma of the lung with metastasis to the iris was made.

A histopathologic study of the position of the shearing intraocular lens in the posterior chamber.

Three human eyes that had successfully undergone Shearing posterior-chamber intraocular lens implants were examined post mortem. Supporting loops of these lenses were located deep within the ciliary body adjacent to a major ciliary artery (the superior loop in two cases), within the ciliary sulcus (the superior loop in one case), within the lens capsule bag (the inferior loop in two cases), and embedded within the iris stroma (the inferior loop in one case).

Ocular vasodilation and angiogenesis in Potter's syndrome.

At autopsy we examined eight eyes of six infants with Potter's syndrome, an idiopathic multisystem condition with a constellation of ocular anomalies, to explore its ocular component more fully and systematically. A striking abnormality in some cases was the presence of dilated intraocular blood vessels, and these were sometimes associated with retinal and preretinal neovascularization reminiscent of the vasoproliferative stage of retrolental fibroplasia. Since oxygen therapy cannot be implicated in these cases, other causes, either genetic or environmental, must be sought. The presence of nonretinal ocular vascular anomalies, such as iris capillary dilation, peripapillary angioma formation, and vascular anomalies in nonocular tissue, point to a generalized derangement in the control of ocular angiogenesis. Our study indicated that an understanding of the pathogenesis of the vascular anomalies in Potter's syndrome is clearly relevant to other more common retinopathies that are associated with neovascularization.