CHOROIDAL MELANOMAS IN HISPANIC PATIENTS

The initial clinical manifestation and subsequent pathologic character istics of choroidal melanomas were reviewed in 20 enucleated eyes of H ispanic patients identified between 1974 and 1992. We compared them to 125 choroidal melanomas of randomly Selected white patients identifie d over the same time period. At the time of diagnosis and at subsequen t enucleation, the Hispanic patients were younger (P = .002) than the white patients. Eye pain (P = .016), red eye (P = .0002), and tearing (P = .012) were reported more commonly by the Hispanic patients, and o n clinical examination the intraocular pressure was higher (P = .001) and more rubeosis iridis was noted (P < .0001) in the Hispanic patient s than in the white patients. The tumors of the Hispanic patients were larger in their greatest base dimension (P = .003), and were heavily pigmented compared with those of the white patients (P = .0001). A tre nd toward less inflammation within the tumor and toward more epithelio id Cell type was noted in the Hispanic patients.