Color Doppler imaging of untreated and irradiated choroidal melanomas

PURPOSE. We examined untreated and irradiated choroidal melanomas with colo r Doppler imaging (CDI), a noninvasive method providing quantitative measur es of blood flow, to determine if the tumor vessel damage associated with i rradiation can be detected using this technology. METHODS. CDI was performed on 122 untreated and 76 previously irradiated tu mors using a Q2000 color Doppler ultrasound unit. Spectral analysis was per formed on all detectable vascular regions within the tumor to obtain estima tes of the peak systolic and end diastolic flow velocities and resistive in dex ((syst-diast)/syst). RESULTS. Vessels were detected in 93% of the untreated tumors and in 63% of the treated tumors (p < 0.001, X-2), and the median number of vascular reg ions found was higher among untreated tumors (3 vs I, p = 0.001, Wilcoxon R ank Sum). The effect of treatment status on the detection of tumor vessels was significant (p = 0.039), controlling for age, sex, largest tumor pretre atment diameter, and tumor height at CDI in a logistic regression model. Me an resistive index was lower in the untreated tumors (0.53 vs 0.58, p = 0.0 050), controlling for tumor height and other covariates in an analysis of v ariance. CONCLUSIONS. On examination with CDI, irradiated tumors had fewer detectabl e vascular regions and greater resistance to flow than untreated tumors, a pattern consistent with known radiation effects.