Magnetic resonance imaging of a canine eye with melanoma

An 8-year-old Beagle dog had exophthalmos of the left eye for the last two past months. On ophthalmoscopy, the intraocular lesion could not be evaluated due to the opacity of the cornea. Ultrasonography revealed that the eyeball was distorted in shape and shifted in position, however, the precise lesion could not be identified. On magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, the lesion was observed as hyperintense on T1-weighted and hypointense on T2-weighted images, similar to those reported in human melanoma. The lesion was histologically diagnosed to be malignant intraocular melanoma. Though this is only a case report, canine ocular melanoma may show the similar characteristic MR images as in human uveal malignant melanoma.