Flat choroidal melanoma masquerading as central serous chorioretinopathy

Abstract

There are several mimickers of choroidal melanoma. We report a patient with recent family stress who developed blurred vision to 20/50 OD and was found to have unilateral central serous chorioretinopathy and a coincidental choroidal nevus. After 1 year without resolution of the subretinal fluid, the patient was referred for our opinion. On examination, visual acuity was 20/50 in the right eye and 20/20 in the left eye. The left eye was normal. Evaluation of the right eye showed a small, pigmented submacular choroidal lesion measuring 4 mm Χ 3 mm. Ultrasonography documented an isoechoic mass measuring 1.71 mm in thickness. Optical coherence tomography showed subretinal fluid with shaggy photoreceptors and hyper-reflective material within the subretinal fluid, likely indicative of lipofuscin within macrophages. Autofluorescence revealed orange pigment overlying the lesion. These features were strongly suggestive of small choroidal melanoma with five risk factors for tumor growth. Treatment with Iodine-125 plaque brachytherapy was performed on the patient. The readers should keep in mind that choroidal melanoma can manifest as a tiny choroidal mass with related multimodal imaging features of subretinal fluid and orange pigment.

Keywords

• Central serous chorioretinopathy
• choroid
• melanoma
• optical coherence tomography
• retina