CORRELATION OF HISTOLOGICAL TUMOR VASCULARIZATION AND DOPPLER SONOGRAPHY IN PATIENTS WITH MALIGNANT-MELANOMA OF THE CHOROID

Background: In previous studies Doppler sonography was proven to the u seful for diagnostics and follow-up of malignant melanomas of the chor oid. Methods: To evaluate the correlation between Doppler sonographica l findings and the histological tumor vascularization, we examined fiv e eyes of five patients with malignant melanoma of the choroid before enucleation with an ATL Ultramark-8 Duplex scanner and compared these results with computerized planimetry of histological tumor vasculariza tion after immunohistochemical staining of vascular endothelium with a nti-factor-VIII antibodies. Results: We found no definite correlation of flow velocities with histological parameters of tumor vascularizati on. The tendency was for a decrease in maximum flow velocities as hist ological vascularization increased. Conclusions: Due to (1) the usual lack of sensitivity parameters of the used Duplex device for the clini cal user and (2) the unpredictable branching pattern within a melanoma resulting in an unknown angle of incidence of the Doppler beam, we co nclude that the quantitative results of Doppler sonography require cau tious interpretation. Nevertheless, presence or absence of Doppler shi fts is a valuable parameter for the follow-up of irradiated tumors.