Endogenous fluorescence of ocular malignant melanomas.

The endogenous fluorescence of human choroid, sclera, and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) in normal tissue and tissue with uveal melanoma was studied in vitro by a non-invasive and non-destructive fluorescence technique which had previously been applied for the diagnostic evaluation of pigmented lesions of the skin. The fluorescence of the normal choroid is rather dark, the normal sclera exhibits blue fluorescence and the RPE bright yellow fluorescence due to deposits of lipofuscin. In choroidal melanoma, the lipofuscin granulae at the level of the retinal pigment epithelium are cleaved off above the tumour and broken up into small remnants. The fluorescence intensity emitted from the tumour is rather low which agrees with previous findings on skin melanomas. The results may become interesting for diagnostic evaluation of uveal melanomas, uveal naevi, and pigmented conjunctival tumours by endogenous fluorescence.