Circulating tumor cells detection and counting in uveal melanomas by a filtration-based method.

Uveal melanoma is one of the most deadly diseases in ophthalmology for which markers able to predict the appearance of metastasis are needed. The study investigates the role of circulating tumor cells (CTC) as a prognostic factor in this disease. We report the detection of circulating tumor cells by Isolation by Size of Epithelial Tumor cells (ISET) in a cohort of 31 uveal melanoma patients: we identified single CTCs or clusters of cells in 17 patients, while the control population, subjects with choroidal nevi, showed no CTC in peripheral blood.

Tyrosinase mRNA levels in the blood of uveal melanoma patients: correlation with the number of circulating tumor cells and tumor progression.

We measured tyrosinase mRNA levels by real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR), in the blood of patients with uveal melanoma. Results were correlated with clinical data and, in a subgroup of patients, with the number of circulating tumor cells (CTC) assessed using isolation by size of epithelial tumor cells (ISET). Forty-one patients with uveal melanoma were longitudinally investigated over a period of 5 years.

Photodynamic therapy using methyl aminolevulinate acid in eyelid basal cell carcinoma: a 5-year follow-up study.

Purpose: To evaluate retrospectively the long-term results of methyl aminolevulinate photodynamic therapy for the treatment of eyelid basal cell carcinoma.

Methods: Sixteen consecutive patients with eyelid basal cell carcinoma were treated with methyl aminolevulinate photodynamic therapy between January 2002 and April 2003. Selection criteria were tumors located at least 3 mm from the tarsus, surgery not indicated because of poor general health, and recurrences with unclear location definition.

Orbital solitary fibrous tumor: a case report and review of the literature.

Solitary fibrous tumor (SFT) is a rare spindle cell neoplasm typically arising in the pleura and involving the orbit as its most common extra-pleural location. We herein describe a well documented case of orbital SFT arising in a 62-year-old woman presenting with progressive swelling of the right upper eyelid and proptosis. The tumor had a benign clinical course, with radical surgical excision followed by regression of the clinical symptoms.

Ocular hemodynamics and glaucoma prognosis: a color Doppler imaging study.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of optic nerve circulation, using color Doppler imaging (CDI), on the progression of visual field damage in primary open-angle glaucoma.

Methods: The relationship between the results of retrobulbar CDI, performed shortly after the diagnosis of primary open-angle glaucoma, and the progression of visual field loss for 7 years was evaluated in 44 glaucoma patients. Color Doppler imaging variables in patients with a stable and deteriorating clinical course were compared, and the pattern of increasing risk for different CDI values was analyzed using an additive logistic model.

Effects of timolol and dorzolamide on retrobulbar hemodynamics in patients with newly diagnosed primary open-angle glaucoma.

The authors considered a group of patients with newly diagnosed primary open-angle glaucoma studying the effects of a 4-week treatment with timolol or dorzolamide on retrobulbar vessels. Ocular hemodynamics were assessed by means of color Doppler imaging of the ophthalmic artery, the temporal short posterior ciliary arteries (SPCAs) and the central retinal artery. For each vessel, systolic and diastolic blood flow velocities were measured, and the resistivity index (RI) was calculated.