In an 82-year-old woman with a recurrent right lid basal cell carcinoma infiltrating the upper temporal orbit, a solid yellowish lesion was found ophthalmoscopically in the superotemporal periphery of the right eye. On standardized echography examination, the 2.5-mm elevated subretinal lesion was medium to high reflective with irregular structure, whereas the adjacent orbital mass was medium to low reflective and the sclera was thinned with at least one passage between the orbital and ocular lesions. To our knowledge, this is the first echographic report of sclerochoroidal infiltration from a lid basal cell carcinoma.

In the period between February 1992 and June 1996, the authors performed extra-ocular muscle echobiometry on 163 patients with Graves’ disease. The aim of this study is the evaluation of changes occurring in several clinical stages. The authors noted an increase in internal muscular reflectivity in the advanced phases and an irregular structure in the early stages. Controversial results in the literature warrant mastery of the method and further research.

The authors measured extraocular muscle thickness in normal subjects and in patients affected by Graves’ disease, using a Sonomed A-2000 echobiometer (probe with 10-MHz frequency); Hertel’s exophthalmometry was also performed. Statistically significant differences in muscle thickness between normals and patients were found. This technique seems to be sufficiently useful and reliable in extraocular thickness evaluation, showing data similar to those of the recent literature.

No abstract

The authors assessed the regression of choroidal tumors, following irradiation treatment, by means of B scan sonography (Sonomed B 3000). Thirty-two patients were studied, 12 of whom underwent brachytherapy with ¹⁰⁶Ru plaques and 20 of whom were treated with accelerated protons. After a follow-up period of 12 months, the following was observed: reduction of the thickness of the tumor (significantly greater in the tumors which underwent brachytherapy) and morphological and structural changes which consisted in a thinning of the tumor and an increased reflectivity.