The Nature of the Orange Pigment Over a Choroidal Melanoma

Abstract

A mottled pigmented choroidal mass, superotemporal to the right macula of a 59-year-old white man, was interpreted as a malignant melanoma. Over portions of the tumor there was a yellow-orange pigment, which on angiography obscured the background fluorescence within the tumor. After enucleation, the pigment was localized to the plane of the pigment epithelium along the inner surface of the choroidal melanoma. Microscopical examination disclosed that the orange pigment was contained within proliferated retinal pigment epithelial cells and in macrophages located both within and under the degenerated retina. Histochemical and electron microscopical studies provided conclusive evidence that the pigment was lipofuscin.