Clinical features of choroidal metastases from carcinoid tumour

To report ophthalmologic and angiographic features of choroidal metastases from carcinoid tumor and analyze their common clinical manifestation.

Ophthalmologic examinations and fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA) were performed in 30 patients suffered from carcinoid tumor, and four patients diagnosed of breast cancer (2 cases), lung cancer (1 case) and maxillary sinus cancer (1 case) were confirmed with choroidal metastases.

Choroidal metastases were found as the initial manifestations of the malignant tumors on 2 patients whose initial and chief complaints were decreasing vision, their fundus lesions were mainly presented in the posterior pole and FFA showed high density of fluorescence of the lesions.

This study indicated choroidal metastasis might be the first sign of metastases for patients with cancer. For patients with unknown metastasic cancers, examinations of the choroids may be useful for diagnosis and prognosis.