Mercury 197 chlormerodrin in the diagnosis of intraocular tumours.

Intraocular tumours continue to pose diagnostic problems which are not mitigated by the rarity of such cases in the experience of the ophthalmologist. Clinical examination and observation of the natural history of intraocular lesions do not always offer a definitive diagnosis, and laboratory and other tests are needed to provide further information. The successful application of radio-isotopes in the investigation of malignancy elsewhere in the body has invited their introduction into the realm of ophthalmology. This paper reports our experience with 197Hg Chlormerodrin whole eye scanning during the last 3 years. Our inconclusive results with 1311 diiodofluorescein prompted us to try this other compound, which has been successfully used in brain scanning (Greaves and Cappin, I968). Since 197Hg Chlormerodrin is a y-emitter, a counter-probe may be placed directly in front of the eyes, an obvious advantage over the use of 32p, which, by virtue of the limited penetrating power of its [B rays, requires the counter probe to be placed directly over the lesion. Sodee (I963, i964) first suggested the use of Chlormerodrin and his initial reports of its use for indicating the presence of intraocular tumours were encouraging.