Malignant melanoma in a blind eye.

A 62-year-old man developed a malignant melanoma in his left eye that had been blind due to trauma for 35 years. This case illustrates the difficulties in detection and early diagnosis of occult malignant melanoma of the uveal tract in phthistic globes. The necessity for long-term follow-up of posttraumatic eyes is stressed.

The clinical usefulness of an algorithm for the interpretation of biochemical profiles with hypercalcemia.

A logical, systematic approach to the interpretation of diagnostic biochemical profiles in patients with hypercalcemia has been attempted through the use of algorithms (decision trees). A tentative algorithm (ALG-I) and an expanded and modified version (ALG-II) were compared for effectiveness in tests of 80 patients with hypercalcemia at Charity Hospital in New Orleans. The overwhelming majority (69%) of these patients had malignant disease.

Squamous cell carcinoma with sarcomatoid stroma.

Two cases of squamous cell carcinoma with sarcomatoid stroma are presented. One tumor was located in the soft palate that metastasized to a neck lymph node; the epithelial and the spindle cell component of the tumor at the primary as well as at the metastatic site showed ultrastructural features of squamous cell carcinoma. The other case, a laryngeal tumor with spindle cell stroma, was shown by ultrastructural studies to be composed of proliferating fibroblasts.